


Just So Long As There's No Stuffed Animals

by MageKing17



Series: JSLATNSA Universe [1]
Category: Bleach
Genre: Fix-It, Gen, Hijinks & Shenanigans, I mean really, The Author Regrets Nothing, Time Shenanigans, Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It, but there's twice as much time travel and fixing as usual going on, but what else do you expect from these characters, so it all makes sense in the end really, so many hijinks and shenanigans, you might think those tags are redundant
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-14
Updated: 2017-11-19
Packaged: 2018-08-22 08:32:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 12
Words: 48,134
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8279581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MageKing17/pseuds/MageKing17
Summary: Ichigo decides that things could've and should've gone better, and asks Kisuke to help him make that happen.
Unbeknownst to him, he wasn't the only one.
The resulting trainwreck was downright inevitable.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> I may have been reading a lot of time-travel fix-it lately, and the idea popped into my head: what if somebody went back in time to fix everything, only to discover somebody else already did?
> 
> That somehow morphed into this idea and I just ran with it. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it.
> 
> Given the method of time travel I wound up using, I suppose this could be considered to be inspired (at least in part) by [On Life, On Death, On Everything In-Between](http://archiveofourown.org/works/717740), although with both very different "futures" and very different outcomes.
> 
> I haven't written the whole thing out yet so at some point this may stop being a Gen story, but we'll cross that bridge, set it on fire, and then obliterate it with Kidō when we come to it.

Ichigo stared down at his empty glass. "Hey, you've probably done experiments with time-travel at some point, right?"

Kisuke coughed and hid his face behind his fan. "I don't know why people assume that I would've gotten involved with anything like—"

Ichigo's raised eyebrow made Kisuke trail off and sigh. "Yes, all right, I've... done some research in that area."

"So could you—?"

"No, I won't send you back in time."

Ichigo frowned (although since that was his default expression, it might be more accurate to say that he _resumed_ frowning). "Why not?"

"Do you have any idea what kind of side effects there could be?"

" _Any_ idea? Sure; world-ending paradoxes, discovering that you can't change anything because it all forms a stable time loop anyway, creating an alternate universe so it could be said not to really matter anyway..."

Kisuke blinked at that. "Okay, clearly you've given this some amount of thought. Still, there are other possibilities. You might just cease to exist. You might successfully go back, but wind up horribly injured by trying to mess around with the space-time continuum. You might go back further than intended, and I don't even want to _know_ what it's like to merge with your younger self if you haven't even been born yet—"

The particular shade of green Ichigo's face turned at that point spoke volumes about how disgusting he found that train of thought. "I guess that answers the question of whether there would be two of me running around, I suppose."

"Yeah, no; the only way I can think of to do it involves you merging with your own soul in the past, so there would definitely only be one of you running around. Or none of you, if things go horribly wrong."

"On the other hand, if it worked—"

"On the other hand," Kisuke said, eyes narrowing as he wondered why Ichigo was being so persistent about this, "things aren't exactly a dystopian apocalypse here, you know."

"Yeah," Ichigo said with a sigh, rubbing his hand on the back of his neck. "Things could definitely have gone a lot worse than they did, but... they could've gone a lot better, too, you know? There are peo- _things_ that _should've_ gone better."

It was fortunate Kisuke still had his fan covering his face, or his expression might've made Ichigo punch him. Again. "'Things', huh?"

Him and his big mouth; Ichigo looked like he was considering punching him anyway. Kisuke decided to quickly move the conversation along before that idea could transform into action. "If you do this, there's always the possibility that things could end up _worse_ , you know."

Kisuke felt no need to point out that space-time manipulation was illegal; it's not like they both weren't well aware, at this point, of the events that had culminated in Kisuke leaving Soul Society. It also wasn't as though they both weren't well aware of how little Ichigo gave a damn.

"It's possible," Ichigo conceded. "On the other hand, it's a miracle things turned out as well as they did, given how little I knew in the beginning."

Kisuke could have sworn Ichigo was _glaring_ at him by the end of that sentence. Why, it was almost as if he blamed _him_ , at least in part, for that ignorance.

Fair enough.

"You're really sure you want to go through with this?" Kisuke asked softly, and Ichigo had the tact not to point out that this was tantamount to agreeing to do it. "I can't even begin to predict what the consequences could be."

"Yeah, I'm sure." Ichigo's expression had shifted to Standard Ichigo Determination™, so Kisuke knew any further attempt to derail him would be pointless.

"Very well; meet me at midnight and I'll have finished the preparations."

* * *

Ichigo awoke with a start.

_Well, I'm not dead...or at least I don't _think_ I am...so if it failed, it didn't fail as spectacularly as it could have._

He opened his eyes, and took in the familiar view of his bedroom ceiling. _Looks like I'm in Karakura._ He quickly checked himself over. _No missing limbs or inexplicable injuries; seems as though I managed to avoid any of the more dangerous side effects of time travel, so far._

A quick search around the room and he had his old phone in his hands, the date and time displayed innocuously in the corner of the screen. "Wow, Geta-Bōshi," he muttered to himself, "your aim was downright perfect."

Ichigo had been as vague as "before I met Rukia", and Kisuke had given him an odd look and said "I'll see what I can do." No matter how much the ~~mad scientist~~ ex-captain insisted that any degree of accuracy was impossible, the fact that it was almost _exactly_ 24 hours before Rukia was scheduled to come through his window hardly seemed like a coincidence.

With a frown, Ichigo realized that talking out loud to himself was probably not a good habit to get into; he didn't want anyone to catch him muttering information he shouldn't have.

_Yeah,_ said a sarcastic voice from inside his own head. _We wouldn't want people to think you talk to yourself, now would we?_

_Shut up,_ Ichigo thought as hard as he could, and continued to take stock of his situation. His body physically seemed to be 15 years old again, but since he could still hear Zangetsu, he strongly suspected that if he left his body (and boy was he _ever_ glad he could do that without needing outside assistance), his soul would _not_ look 15. Hopefully, he'd at least still be able to keep his Zanpakutō sealed; he figured revealing himself as an older-than-he-should-be dual-wielder would have more of an impact than if he simply revealed himself as an older-than-he-should-be Shinigami with a regular-looking Zanpakutō. He supposed he might, with more than a little luck, convince Zangetsu to disguise itself in the same slightly-oversized shape he wielded when he originally awoke his/stole Rukia's powers, but he'd need time for that, and spending any amount of time outside of his body right now would probably be a terrible idea.

If Ichigo could manage to keep his reiatsu under control this time around, it was highly likely that Rukia would be able to keep track of and dispatch Fishbone D without getting injured trying to protect some ignorant dumbass with no clue of what was going on, and then need to transfer her powers to said ignorant dumbass, and then Kisuke wouldn't wind up—

_Oh,_ Ichigo suddenly thought to himself.

Zangetsu snorted. _Ya think? If you want to avoid that, we'll probably need to do something about the Hōgyoku sooner rather than later._

Ichigo nodded in the darkness and pretended to be asleep, like he was supposed to be. _Okay, then, let's plan this out._

* * *

"Good morning," Ichigo tried to say as casually as he could as he entered the living room, but winced internally as Isshin's head snapped upright to stare at him. _Crap, I guess I'm not blending in as well as I could be._

_If he's already regained the ability to sense reiatsu,_ Zangetsu pointed out, _then yours suddenly dropping to almost nothing could hardly fail to catch his attention._

_Crap; oh well, a suspicious father is probably the least bad outcome from this situation._

...Wait a minute. Hadn't his dad been at a meeting around now, the first time around? Shit, Isshin must be even more concerned than Ichigo thought.

At that point, the audio from the TV reached his ears, and Ichigo tried not to gape too hard at the report. _Again? But as we just went over, I've got my reiatsu locked down tight!_

_You do _now,_ but that doesn't do anything about all that reiatsu your past self leaked everywhere like a goddamn faucet._

_...Point._ Ichigo sighed internally.

"What's wrong?" Yuzu asked, noticing the attention her brother was paying to the TV.

"Nothing," Ichigo replied. "I was just surprised by how nearby that is."

And then he walked out the door to make sure that some butterfly effect of him suppressing his reiatsu wouldn't somehow cause the poor girl's ghost to get eaten instead of saved by Rukia, ignoring his father as he asked him where he was going.

Sure enough, the moment he came around the corner, the Plus was once again fleeing that mantis-shaped Hollow. Ichigo ran forward. "Come on, let's go!"

She didn't even have time to thank him before he picked her up and started hauling her away from the Hollow (no way in _hell_ he was going to let her try and run away on her own, this time); before Ichigo had time to worry about how he might deal with the Hollow chasing them without revealing his Shinigami status, a black Shihakushō flew overhead and a split-second later Sode no Shirayuki was cleaving through the Hollow's mask.

_Huh,_ Ichigo thought to himself. _Didn't that take her more than one blow before? I guess my reiatsu was more of a distraction than I thought, last time._

"Are you all right?" he asked the Plus as he set her down.

"Yes, I'm fine; thank you."

"Good. Now hurry up and go to heaven!" he called over his shoulder as he walked off; he needed to figure out how to tail Rukia without her noticing so he could make sure she handled Fishbone D without incident.

* * *

As it turned out, tailing Rukia was not difficult; she didn't so much as glance in his direction, and he had no trouble tracking her very familiar (albeit less powerful than he was used to) reiatsu. She was making a beeline straight for the Hollow, so Ichigo figured he wouldn't have to wait long to see if she would need help. Sure enough, it only took a matter of minutes for Rukia to catch up with and take down Fishbone D.

_Impressive,_ Ichigo thought to himself. _I guess when she's not distracted by my reiatsu and trying to protect my dumb ass _and_ the rest of my family all at the same time, she's more than a match for him._

_Probably a good thing,_ Zangetsu pointed out, _since you haven't actually tried leaving your body yet._

Ichigo blinked. _Could_ he still leave his body without using a gikongan or similar tool? He still remembered the painstakingly-learned Kidō Kisuke had taught him about a year ago (or, uh... no, you know what? He wasn't going to twist his brain into knots like that. It was a _year ago_ ), but it was entirely possible the soul merger had affected his ability to use it. He supposed there was no way to find out but to try it.

After making sure Rukia had left, again without noticing him, Ichigo hid himself and began focusing. To his immense relief, the spell worked and he found himself standing over his own body.

_Hopefully my reiatsu didn't send up a flare just now,_ Ichigo thought as he made sure his body wasn't easily visible and put a simple barrier around it. His Zanpakutō was still sealed, so at least that was going according to plan, and a quick experiment demonstrated that his Shunpo was still in top form.

_Gotta be honest,_ Zangetsu admitted, _I was actually pretty nervous about that._

Right; now that he knew for sure he actually could use his powers, it was time to take care of a few things.

* * *

As Ichigo crept through Urahara's shop, he noticed a box labeled "Inferior Goods" and swore silently to himself. After a moment of indecision, he grabbed the box and took it with him.

_Just so long as there's no stuffed animals involved, in the end,_ he thought to himself.

* * *

Almost exactly 24 hours after he'd arrived in the past, Ichigo found himself blinking at the Shinigami that had just walked through his window. "What the _hell_ are you doing?"

That wasn't quite what he'd said the first time around, when Rukia walked through his window, but he figured he could be forgiven for momentarily being incredibly confused by the fact that she was _here at all_ ; he'd kept an eye out after he was done taking care of his 'errands', and there weren't currently any more Hollows in the area.

So _why_ , exactly, did she feel the need to come through this particular window, if he was so carefully restraining his reiatsu to not stand out?

"You can see me?" she asked, eyebrow raised, and Ichigo had to additionally restrain the urge to roll his eyes. _Well, at least she didn't ignore me until I kicked her, although I guess she isn't focused on trying to find Fishbone D this time._

"Of course I can see you; I'm talking to you, aren't I?"

"You're the boy who was in town earlier," she replied, and Ichigo was a little surprised she'd even noticed him this time around, given that he hadn't just stood in front of the Hollow and stared at it. _I hope she didn't notice me spying on her as she took down Fishbone D._

"Great," said Ichigo, rolling his eyes (whoops; guess he couldn't restrain that impulse after all); "we've established that I'm me. My _name_ is Kurosaki Ichigo. Now who the hell are you, and why did you just come through my window?"

"My name is Kuchiki Rukia, and I'm—"

They both turned to the window at the sudden sound of a Hollow crying out. _Oh great, what is it _now?__ Ichigo thought despairingly. _Isn't the next Hollow that's supposed to show up Hexapodus tomorrow? And why would they show up _faster_ if I'm standing out _less?__

_Perhaps,_ Zangetsu mused, _if you were being less of an _idiot_ , you might figure out it has less to do with the absolute time and more to do with how long it's been since Fishbone D was purified. Let's see, it was originally a little after _now_ , so if you compare the times..._

Ichigo managed not to swear out loud (although he imagined Rukia wouldn't be terribly surprised by that reaction, under the circumstances). _The Hollows will probably be homing in on Rukia's reiatsu, since she's the biggest target in the area... well, aside from any _other_ souls I inadvertently gave some of mine before I came back and started clamping down on it._

He still felt bad about that; he really did.

"You heard that too, I suppose?" Rukia asked, (rather pointlessly, in Ichigo's opinion, since they were both staring out the window).

"Obviously," he replied. "Another one of those monsters from today?"

"We call them 'Hollows'," she said, "and purifying them is our duty."

"So," he said, wanting to wrap this conversation up as quickly as possible so Rukia would go and take care of the problem and hopefully not get injured in the process and wind up losing her powers again, "if you're a Shinigami and you fight Hollows, shouldn't you be doing that instead of standing around talking to human high school students?"

Rukia rolled her eyes at him. "Don't order me around, brat; I'm over a hundred years older than you." Nonetheless, she jumped back out the window and began running towards the Hollow's location.

_Huh,_ Ichigo noted, slightly surprised. _I didn't realize her reiatsu was quite that powerful before._

He hadn't been paying much attention to it, beyond its location, when he was following her earlier. It was certainly less powerful than it was before he went back in time, and he hadn't exactly been very good at sensing... _anything_ the first time around, and by the time he would've even thought to try, she'd already given him her powers, so he supposed he didn't really have anything to compare it to. Still, it was a bit stronger than he'd been expecting. _I guess there's a reason she became a Vice-Captain so fast._

Wait a minute.

Did he just call her a Shinigami without her actually getting around to using that word? Ah, shit.

Wait, no. She must've said it while he was distracted, because she hadn't been surprised when he used the term.

_Or maybe she just figured you guessed someone invisible to normal humans that fights monsters which are also invisible to normal humans and protects ghosts, which are also invisible to normal humans, _might_ have something to do with death. Just saying._

Ichigo snorted. _True, I guess this Rukia would have no way of knowing exactly how much of a dumbass I used to be._

* * *

Urahara Kisuke blinked. "Well, that can't be right."

Either the Hōgyoku had duplicated itself and drained itself of its power in the process, or somebody had—for whatever reason—found his hiding place, stolen the Hōgyoku, and replaced it with... _two_ fake replicas.

Kisuke sighed; this was clearly going to be an Event™.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm being a little vague on exactly how things turned out in the future because it's not really the point of the story; obviously it's different than canon, but I don't want to go into detail because it's more fun to guess at what happened by observing the behaviors and powers of our time travelers. It's far enough in the future that they're pretty powerful; beyond that, the particulars aren't really important right now.
> 
> Don't expect a consistent update schedule; I'll be posting chapters as I finish them.


	2. The Shenanigans Thicken

Ichigo sat cross-legged on his bed as he stared at the box on his lap and pondered what he was going to do about its contents. He didn't exactly need Kon's help to leave his body anymore, but on the other hand it might be useful to have assistance in the form of his body walking around and interacting with people and _not_ appearing to be dead any time he had to take care of something as a Shinigami.

_Not that there was the slightest chance in hell he'd be able to fool your old man, given he never managed that last time around and he's already suspicious of you._

Ichigo managed (barely) not to snort at that; he'd sensed Isshin's reiatsu (and wasn't _that_ a surprise; he'd expected his dad to still be using a reiatsu-suppressing gigai right now) sneaking off to Urahara's shop, and strongly suspected they were going to be talking about him.

_Or Urahara noticed the Hōgyoku's replacement with a fake, and they're panicking._

Ichigo frowned at that. _You think they'll conclude Aizen did it?_

_How the hell should I know? We both knew they weren't going to just ignore it, though._

Ichigo sighed internally, but Zangetsu had a point. He'd decided that taking the Hōgyoku out of play was more important, and he'd accepted that any resulting panic was a necessary consequence; if worst came to worst, he could always reveal some future knowledge if it looked like that panic would go in a harmful direction.

Still, while Kon could never fool his father, he might be able to fool his sisters or classmates, so he supposed he might as well take him out and give him a good talking to so they wouldn't have to go through quite as public an incident as last time before the mod-soul would agree to help.

Ichigo opened the box, then blinked in confusion. _What the fuck?_

 _Well,_ said Zangetsu in a case of massive understatement. _This is unexpected._

The box was empty.

* * *

Ichigo was beginning to suspect that redoing high school would kill him. He hadn't actually considered this consequence of going back in time (okay, let's be honest: he probably thought of it and then immediately suppressed the thought, or he might never have gone through with it), but now that he was stuck with it, it was so mind-numbing he desperately needed a distraction.

He decided his distraction would be waging psychological warfare against Uryuu.

It might be slightly unfair of him to be getting pre-emptive revenge on the other boy (especially given his current mental age and the fact that Uryuu hadn't actually interacted with him much, if at all, in this timeline), but it was for the sake of his sanity, so he'd just have to live with the guilt. Besides, Uryuu didn't actually have any friends yet, so he might even thank him in the end.

Also, it was unbelievably entertaining.

"Uryuu!" Ichigo shouted jovially, throwing his arm around the stuck-up Quincy's shoulders. "How are you today?"

"What the—? Kurosaki-san?" Uryuu's voice was strained as he attempted (in vain) to escape Ichigo's grasp. "What on _earth_ are you doing?"

"I've decided that we should be friends," he replied, a manic grin on his face.

Uryuu blanched. "Not interested." He finally slipped out of Ichigo's reach and began moving away as quickly as he could.

"I didn't say you'd have a choice!" Ichigo called after him with a laugh. Maybe he'd give him a day to wonder what that was about, then ambush him at lunch tomorrow. Ah yes, this was going to be fun.

* * *

The universe, Ichigo decided, had an even stranger sense of humor than him. "What the _fuck_ are you doing here?"

"Ah, I don't believe we've met!" said Rukia in a painfully annoying (and, he admitted in a small corner of his mind, nostalgic) sing-songy fake voice. "My name is Kuchiki Rukia; I'm very pleased to meet you."

She held out her hand, and Ichigo noted she hadn't written a death threat on her palm this time. _Well, that makes sense,_ Zangetsu noted, laughing at him. _She doesn't know what a dumbass you really are._

 _Shut it,_ Ichigo replied, even though he'd had the exact same thought.

"...Kurosaki Ichigo," he replied out loud, shaking her hand and switching to a low whisper. "Now what the _fuck_ are you doing here?"

"I don't see how that's any of your business," Rukia replied at the same volume, and Ichigo had to admit he saw the point there; he wasn't serving as her substitute, so she didn't really owe him an explanation. On the other hand, he _wasn't_ serving as her substitute, so _what the fuck?_

"It's my school," he said instead, "so I feel like that makes it my business."

"Well then," she said with a smirk as she walked past him, "it's too bad I disagree."

Ichigo scowled, but she was probably relying on him not making a scene in the middle of class (and, worse, given their interactions so far, she would have no way of knowing how bad an idea that was; and to top it all off, she'd be _right_ , this time around), so he just fumed and sat back down. _I'm going to be very disappointed if she aggravates me to the point I actually try to kill her,_ he thought to himself.

_You guys wouldn't be _you_ without a little attempted homicide now and then._

* * *

When Rukia followed him up to the roof, he was simultaneously unsurprised and slightly worried. On the one hand, she probably wanted to keep an eye on the only person who knew she wasn't an ordinary student. On the other hand, he still had no idea what she was doing there in the first place. _For that matter, I still have no idea why she came through my window last night._

"Are you stalking me now?" Ichigo asked sarcastically as they stepped outside.

"Don't be an idiot," she replied without missing a beat.

"Well, first you kill a monster in front of me, then you sneak into my bedroom, then you infiltrate my school, and then you follow me to the roof. If you're not stalking me, you're doing a pretty good impression of it."

Rukia huffed at him. "You have an overactive imagination, human."

"You still haven't explained why you're following me."

"You have an abnormal spiritual energy," she replied, and it took all of Ichigo's self-control not to blurt out, 'how could you know that when I've been suppressing my reiatsu since before we met?' because that would give away more information than he wanted to, at this point.

"What does that mean?" he asked instead, his mind racing. _Had she already entered the human world before I started suppressing my reiatsu? Maybe the sudden drop drew her attention, and she'd already gotten enough of a read on me to notice me at close range later... hmm._

_Uh, Ichigo?_

_What?_

_She stopped talking already._

Ichigo looked over; Rukia appeared to be awaiting a response.

"Uh... what?"

Rukia sighed. "Never mind." She pulled out her lunch, and Ichigo couldn't quite suppress a snort when he saw the juice box.

"Need any help with that?" he said with a smirk.

Rukia glared at him. "I'm sure I can handle it." With that, she speared the straw through the hole and began sipping.

Ichigo blinked in confusion. _Wait... what?_

* * *

"Very well; meet me at midnight and I'll have finished the preparations."

Ichigo nodded and walked off, and Kisuke sighed. _There's something very unusual about that boy,_ he thought, and for nowhere remotely close to the first time.

His thoughts, however, were interrupted by someone clearing their throat behind him.

"Ah," Kisuke said, turning around. "How are you, Kuchiki-san?"

Rukia kept her eyes on the floor, as though she didn't want to meet his gaze. "Urahara-san, would it be a safe bet to say you have some familiarity with the concept of time travel?"

Kisuke blinked at that, not quite believing he was having this conversation twice in a row. "Have you been talking to—? No, never mind. What do you want?"

She still didn't look up. "I've been thinking, lately, about... how things could've gone differently."

Kisuke resisted the urge to sigh, pinch his nose, and tell her to go get drunk with everyone else. "Like how they could have gone much, much worse?"

Rukia snorted and glared at him. _Well, at least she's not still staring at the floor._ "Things could have gone a lot better, as well. There are... _events_ , the outcome of which I've been dwelling on for some time now."

Kisuke redeployed his fan in face-concealing mode. "'Events', huh?" At least it was a step up from Ichigo's 'peo- _things_ '.

Rukia looked like she wanted to punch him in the face, and Kisuke couldn't quite stop himself from rolling his eyes at the synchronicity. "Are you aware of the potential consequences?"

"Of course not," she replied easily. "I don't have enough knowledge on the subject to be _able_ to know what the potential consequences are. That doesn't mean I haven't guessed."

Well, that was probably true enough. "You could cease to exist, or end up horribly injured, or trying to merge with your own soul could go wrong in some way I can't even imagine."

Rukia's expression of disgust was almost identical to the one Ichigo had been wearing not even five minutes beforehand, but she didn't back down either. "I accept the potential consequences of my actions."

 _No, I don't suppose that was ever your problem._ "If you're sure... then meet me, say, a half an hour before midnight. Hopefully I'll be done with my preparations by then."

* * *

Kisuke had made sure to keep them from seeing each other, that night; if they knew, they might do something even stupider. When Rukia arrived, he'd quickly put her in one of the sealed chambers he'd prepared for this foolhardy endeavor he'd somehow agreed to _multiple times_ , asking only when she wanted to go back to ("Just before I met Ichigo," she'd said. "I'll see what I can do," he'd replied).

When Ichigo arrived, he made sure to put him in the chamber farthest from hers; he doubted they'd be able to sense each other through the materials of the walls, but there was no point in taking unnecessary risks. He'd almost said something foolish when Ichigo's request had turned out to be the exact inverse of Rukia's, but he held his composure. If one of them screwed up whatever timeline they wound up in, there was still a possibility that the other might make something good of whatever timeline _they_ wound up in.

The odds of them ending up in the _same_ timeline were, of course, too astronomical to even be worthy of consideration.

* * *

Rukia blinked in surprise as the Senkaimon closed behind her. _Well,_ she thought to herself, _at least he didn't send me back to mid-transit or something._

She looked around; this definitely seemed like Karakura town, as it had seemed when she'd first arrived. She had no trouble fixing the location of Ichigo's well-familiar reiatsu. _...Huh. I thought I remembered it being more overpowering before? Maybe I'm just too used to it by now._

Speaking of reiatsu, she needed to make sure her own was kept carefully restrained; she hadn't been slapped with the automatic limiter any Captain or Vice-Captain got when entering the human world, but she knew she still had the same level of power as before, so she needed to limit _herself_ if she didn't want to cause accidental collateral damage.

 _I'll try to keep myself to just slightly more than I had before,_ Rukia decided. _Nobody here will be able to tell the difference, and I should avoid drawing outside attention; wouldn't want the Hollows to just chase me _and_ Ichigo._

Speaking of whom, she should make sure Fishbone D was taken care of well before he had a chance to threaten Ichigo or his family. She was so used to Ichigo's reiatsu at this point that she should have no trouble tracking the Hollow in spite of it. She could worry about how to make contact with the boy after that; she _definitely_ didn't want to end up giving him her powers this time. For one thing, being powerless would make it extremely difficult for her to affect anything. For another, Urahara would just try sealing the Hōgyoku inside her again, and _that_ was _definitely_ one of those things she wanted to change.

 _Speaking of which,_ she thought as she headed for Urahara's shop, _I have some shopping to do._

* * *

If Urahara found her request for a gigai for a simple patrol unusual, he made no mention of it. _I'd better make sure the Hōgyoku is nowhere near here by the time I pick up that gigai._

"Will that be all?" he said.

"For now," she replied, looking over the shelves once more. She decided that trying anything while Urahara was actually in the shop verged on the suicidal, and decided to make a move as soon as he left.

* * *

As she crept through the shop, barely managing to avoid Tessai (and thank _everything_ she was able to suppress her reiatsu enough that even _Tessai_ didn't notice her), she came across a box labeled "Inferior Goods" and swore silently to herself. After a moment of indecision, she made a note of the location she sensed the Hōgyoku in, then carefully opened the box and took the contents with her, leaving no sign she'd even been there.

 _Just so long as there's no stuffed animals involved, in the end,_ she thought to herself.

* * *

Sitting on a power pole and staring at the gikongan dispenser, Rukia frowned to herself. _Do I even have the right to knowingly let a mod-soul loose, just because I knew him in one possible future? Do I even _want_ to set him loose, knowing what kind of mischief he'll almost certainly get up to?_

She spent a few more minutes thinking herself in circles in the morning sun when she sensed and heard the Hollow simultaneously, abruptly remembering the first time she'd seen Ichigo. _Guess I should take care of that before the dumbass gets himself eaten, or something._

As she she made her way towards the disturbance, avoiding the fleeing humans, she finally spotted Ichigo and the Plus he was protecting. _Wait,_ she thought to herself with a frown, _he hadn't carried her out of harm's way last time... had he? Oh, whatever, worry about it later._

She leapt forward, Sode no Shirayuki drawn, and cleaved through the Hollow's mask in a single blow. _Didn't even stand a chance,_ she thought smugly, sheathing her Zanpakutō and glancing back to make sure Ichigo was okay. _He_ seemed to be making sure the _Plus_ was okay, and Rukia beat a hasty retreat before he noticed her staring at him.

_I'd best take care of Fishbone D now, before anything has a chance to go wrong._

* * *

It took no time at all for her to track down that Hollow, this time. _Wow, I guess familiarity with Ichigo's reiatsu really does help._ Within a matter of minutes, she'd purified the Hollow and she decided to see where Ichigo was right now.

Rukia was quite startled to discover she had no idea where he was.

_That doesn't make any sense; he can't have _left_ , after all, and there's no way he'd be able to hide himself... or even know there was anyone to hide from! What's going on?_

Feeling disturbed, and more than a little confused, she headed back into town. As she passed one building in particular, she almost could've sworn... but no, she must have imagined it. That particular bit of Kidō wouldn't even be _invented_ for years, and the feeling was gone the same instant she'd thought she'd felt it.

Still, she needed to keep a closer eye on Ichigo when she found him again; something was off here.

A quick stop by his window revealed, unsurprisingly, that Ichigo wasn't home right now. _Well, while I wait, I might as well take care of the Hōgyoku._

She made sure she could still sense it in the same direction as before, then clamped down on her Reiatsu and made her way back to Urahara's shop.

* * *

_Huh,_ she thought to herself, surprisingly calm. _This is... clearly not the Hōgyoku. Why is this not the Hōgyoku?_

She held what she'd been expecting to be the Hōgyoku in one hand and the fake she'd wanted to replace it with in the other, and the two looked pretty much identical. She couldn't feel the actual Hōgyoku anywhere in the vicinity, and what the hell did _that_ mean?

_Somebody had to have moved it in the time it took me to get here, but why? Kisuke would hardly replace it with a fake, and who else would even know where it was?_

She felt a brief stab of panic at that. Could Aizen have figured out where the Hōgyoku was hidden? How? She shouldn't have changed that much already in so little time.

Before she could figure out what to do, she heard a noise above her, barely avoided swearing out loud, dropped the fake Hōgyokus, and slipped away before Kisuke could find her. _Something is definitely not right here._

* * *

She glared at Ichigo's bedroom window as the light turned off. He was clearly in there, but she could barely sense him, even this close, and what the hell did _that_ mean?

_Well, I already decided to keep a closer eye on him, so I'd better get on that._

She stepped through the window and onto his desk, carefully not looking at him, pretending to be after something else.

"What the _hell_ are you doing?" he blurted out, obviously confused.

 _Good question,_ she carefully didn't say. "You can see me?" she replied instead, because there was an order to these things and she'd better not let slip anything close to what she was actually doing.

'I'm keeping an eye on you because I was friends with your future self and I want to make sure you aren't the target of a wannabe god with delusions of grandeur' was both unbelievable and a little creepy, if on the nose, after all.

"Of course I can see you; I'm talking to you, aren't I?"

Rukia managed not to roll her eyes at that. "You're the boy who was in town earlier," she said instead, because she'd said the same thing last time, and it seemed safe enough to admit remembering their brief prior encounter.

"Great," said Ichigo, rolling his eyes ( _Hey! I kept myself from doing that, the least you could do is return the favour!_ ); "we've established that I'm me. My _name_ is Kurosaki Ichigo. Now who the hell are you, and why did you just come through my window?"

She refrained from smacking him upside the head (mostly, she admitted in a tiny corner of her mind, because she was feeling nostalgic) and answered calmly. "My name is Kuchiki Rukia, and I'm—"

She was cut off by the sound of a Hollow crying out. _What? Already?_ She had a brief moment to regret not taking her Denreishinki in here with her, but she hadn't wanted to risk potentially being interrupted— _which,_ she noted sourly, _is exactly what happened anyway._

"You heard that too, I suppose?" Rukia asked, getting the obvious out of the way.

"Obviously," he replied. "Another one of those monsters from today?"

"We call them 'Hollows'," she said, trying to dump as much vital information on him as quickly as possible without being too suspicious about it, "and purifying them is our duty."

"So," he replied in that aggravating tone of voice that made her want to punch him, "if you're a Shinigami and you fight Hollows, shouldn't you be doing that instead of standing around talking to human high school students?"

Rukia finally gave up and rolled her eyes at him. "Don't order me around, brat; I'm over a hundred years older than you." Still, she should deal with that before it became a problem, so she took off out the window.

Wait a minute.

Did he just call her a Shinigami without her actually getting around to using that word?

No, she must've gotten it out without realizing it, or there's no way he'd know to use the term in the first place.

_Or he guessed, I suppose... nah. The dumbass wouldn't be able to put even the blindingly obvious together like that._

* * *

If Rukia didn't know better (and she didn't), she'd say Urahara actually looked nervous when she came to collect her gigai.

_Probably wondering what was up with the two fake Hōgyokus. Oh well._

If she'd been paying closer attention, she obviously would have realized keeping one of the fakes with her was a better solution, but she'd been so startled she didn't have time to think it through, and it was definitely too late now.

Still, at least Kisuke was unlikely to try to give her _that_ gigai this time around. Unless he really was the one who'd replaced it with his own fake, of course, but she still thought that was exceedingly unlikely.

As she took the gigai from him, Urahara gave her a suspicious look. "Why do you need a gigai, anyway?"

She made no sign there was any reason for her obtaining a gigai for a simple patrol to be in any way out of the ordinary. "I saw some unusual things, and I wanted to investigate to make sure they wouldn't be a threat; for that, I might have to interact with humans."

If Urahara thought that explanation was bull, he gave no indication. Rukia was pretty sure that even if he figured out she just wanted to keep an eye on one individual in particular, he was unlikely to say anything; it's not like he and Soul Society were on the best of terms, after all.

"Well," he said finally, "thank you for your patronage."

Rukia nodded and headed out; she wondered if she should threaten Ichigo's life again... nah, he didn't have as much reason to be antagonistic this time, and if she escalated without provocation it would only make it harder to keep an eye in him.

* * *

"What the _fuck_ are you doing here?"

Rukia stopped herself from grinning broadly at the outburst. "Ah, I don't believe we've met!" she said in her sing-songy fake voice (which, she admitted distantly, she'd kind of missed using on Ichigo). "My name is Kuchiki Rukia; I'm very pleased to meet you."

She held out her hand, and Ichigo stared at her for a moment before reluctantly taking it.

"...Kurosaki Ichigo," he ground out, shaking her hand and switching to a low whisper. "Now what the _fuck_ are you doing here?"

"I don't see how that's any of your business," Rukia replied at the same volume, and smirked inwardly at the flicker of irritation that crossed his features.

"It's my school," he said, "so I feel like that makes it my business."

"Well then," she said, making the internal smirk an external one, as she walked past him, "it's too bad I disagree."

As she sat down, she found herself wishing he would make a scene in the middle of the classroom. She was vaguely disappointed when he didn't, but oh well; she should have plenty of time to needle him later.

* * *

As she followed Ichigo up the stairs to the roof, she wondered what he was thinking. He obviously wondered why she was there at all, but she doubted he could guess why she was hanging around him in particular. It's not like having spontaneously met yesterday gave her enough motive to keep him close at all times.

"Are you stalking me now?" Ichigo asked sarcastically as they stepped outside.

 _Yes,_ she thought. "Don't be an idiot," she said out loud without missing a beat.

"Well, first you kill a monster in front of me, then you sneak into my bedroom, then you infiltrate my school, and then you follow me to the roof. If you're not stalking me, you're doing a pretty good impression of it."

Rukia huffed at him. "You have an overactive imagination, human."

"You still haven't explained why you're following me."

"You have an abnormal spiritual energy," she replied, because 'I was friends with your future self and decided to keep an eye on you but now I've realized I'm having a hard time giving up on our friendship even though you don't actually know who I am so I'm trying to spark something anyway to assuage my loneliness and guilt' would be both outlandishly unbelievable and more than a little creepy.

If very, very on the nose.

"What does that mean?"

"You see—" she started, and then realized she had no idea where to go from there, and decided to just bullshit through. "Your spiritual energy seems to be causing a localized anomaly that's resulting in some unusual phenomena that I'm trying to keep an eye on."

Vague, technically true, and utterly meaningless. From the familiar blank expression on Ichigo's face, Rukia could tell he hadn't heard a word anyway.

"Uh... what?"

Rukia sighed. _Point proven._ "Never mind." She pulled out her lunch, and Ichigo snorted at her.

"Need any help with that?" he said with a smirk, and she noticed he was looking at her juice box.

Rukia glared at him. Sure, it might have confounded her the first time around, but it's not like she was going to _forget_ how it worked. "I'm sure I can handle it," she said. With that, she speared the straw through the hole and began sipping.

After a moment, Rukia noticed Ichigo was starting at her. "What?" she said, eyebrow raised.

Ichigo shook his head and shrugged. "Nothing."

 _After all,_ he thought to himself, _'I didn't expect you to know how a juice box worked' would be rude, even if it _is_ accurate._

Rukia frowned to herself. _Something very strange is going on here,_ they thought simultaneously.


	3. Belated Reunion

Ichigo found himself half-expecting Mizuiro to come out the stairwell door and strike up a conversation, even though there was no particular reason for the boy to show up now; his mind just couldn't stop seeing the similarities with the first time through, a different day when Rukia had struggled with the concept of a juice box instead of treating it like no big deal, even though there was no reason for her to have done any research on obscure human interactions— _or, for that matter, to infiltrate this school in the first place._

Rukia noticed Ichigo kept glancing at the stairwell door, which was interesting because she'd just done the same thing, and wondered what reason _he_ would have to expect someone to show up right about now. Rukia's eyes narrowed as her mind raced. Too much had been off since arriving in the past for it to all be the result of her meddling. She simply hadn't had enough time for changes to accumulate that quickly, and something about Ichigo's behavior was undeniably strange. If it weren't for his comfortingly-familiar reiatsu, she'd be worried he was an impostor.

 _Wait a minute,_ she realized with a start. _His reiatsu is _very_ familiar. It's _too_ familiar, in fact._

It felt exactly like it had _before_ she'd gone back in time, and not at all like how it should feel this far back in the past. But how was _that_ possible? It wasn't as if—

Oh, that _little_... "I am going to _murder_ that mischievous, sanctimonious, _arrogant_ little _prick_ of a so-called shopkeeper!" she blurted out, unable to restrain her venom.

* * *

Urahara Kisuke was interrupted mid-sentence by a sneezing fit. Isshin blinked at him in surprise. "What was that all about?"

"I have no idea," Urahara said, wiping his nose. "Why, if I were superstitious, I might think somebody hated me."

Isshin snorted. "Who doesn't?"

Urahara glared at him, but didn't dignify that with a response... especially since he knew it was all-too-accurate.

* * *

Ichigo winced at the sudden outburst. " _Please_ don't murder Kisuke—"

And then he realized what he'd just said, and froze. Then he blinked and turned to Rukia, who was fuming and staring in the direction of Urahara's shop, and the reason Rukia's outburst had, despite taking him by surprise, felt so familiar he'd responded automatically finally occurred to him: he _knew_ this Rukia, and not just because he was familiar with the person she might eventually become. He knew _this_ Rukia. If the idea hadn't been so outrageous, he might have realized earlier that the only difference between her reiatsu before he'd woken up in the past and her reiatsu _now_ was that she was holding it in. "...Rukia?"

Rukia sighed and flashed a weary smile at the disbelieving, hopeful tone in his voice as he made the same realization she had. "Hey, Ichigo; nice to see you again."

Ichigo blinked several times in rapid succession as he processed this. Zangetsu was just laughing at him, which was no help at all. _Don't you have something useful to say?_

 _Nope!_ came the cheery reply. _This is hilarious enough as it is! Oh, and tell her 'hey' from me._

Ichigo sighed. "Zangetsu says 'hey', by the way."

Rukia raised an eyebrow at that. "What, really?"

 _What does she mean by that?_ Zangetsu said with a snarl.

 _Gee, I dunno,_ Ichigo thought sarcastically, _maybe she's thinking you're an anti-social psychopath._

 _Fuck off,_ came the expected reply.

Ichigo snorted. "Yes, really." _More or less._

"Anyway," he continued before Zangetsu could curse him out more, "I can understand the _desire_ to murder him, but he's the _wrong_ Kisuke, so we still probably shouldn't."

Rukia sighed. "Maybe, but he _really_ has it coming."

* * *

"I was very confused when you came through my window," Ichigo admitted after they'd made sure nobody would be able to eavesdrop on them; their combined Kidō was quite effective, and the multi-layered barriers they'd set up should both stop anyone from hearing them and subtly discourage anyone from even wanting to investigate the area.

The fact that they were in an out-of-the-way stairwell at the school made it slightly more cramped and awkward than it could be, but neither wanted to wait until they had more freedom of movement to start pooling their information.

"I wondered if I'd missed something," Ichigo continued. "And then it turned out I had."

Rukia snorted. "I didn't expect Hexapodus that quickly, either; I guess we both dropped the ball on that one."

"On the plus side," Ichigo mused, "with me keeping my reiatsu in check, we might be able to avoid _too_ much unwanted attention this time."

Rukia frowned at him. "It's not like Aizen is just going to _give up_ on poking you with a Hollow-shaped stick just because you didn't wind up with my powers, this time. In fact, if anything, he might find your reiatsu's spontaneous disappearance even _more_ suspicious."

Ichigo couldn't quite contain a wince. Rukia blinked in surprise. "Wait, did you actually _forget_ that Aizen was sending Hollows after you?" The wince involuntarily redoubled. "You _did!_ It's a good thing I'm here, or you might've done something _really_ stupid."

He sighed. "I didn't _forget_... not exactly... I just thought it was all Grand Fisher's doing at this point."

Rukia blinked. "Well, who did you think was encouraging Grand Fisher in that regard?"

Ichigo rolled his eyes and allowed her to gloat. "Yeah, yeah, I'm a dumbass; I know. I'm not a _complete_ idiot, though: I got rid of the Hōgyoku already."

"Ah!" Rukia said brightly. "That _does_ explain why it was already missing."

Ichigo snorted. "Of _course_ you went after it, too." The he blinked. _Did... did she just blush?_

"Well," she said nervously, "I _tried_ , but I was so surprised to find another fake there that I kind of... accidentally left both fakes behind when Kisuke startled me and I had to get out of there before he noticed me."

"...You did _what!?_ "

* * *

Isshin frowned and absently rubbed his chin. " _Two_ fake Hōgyokus?"

Urahara shrugged. "I don't get it either. I also don't understand how anyone could've gotten to it without me noticing! I'm trying not to panic too hard, but I can't help but fear the worst."

"Well, it would obviously be very bad if Aizen got his hands on it, but... why would he even _bother_ leaving a fake behind? Let alone _two_? And how would he even know where it was in the first place?"

"I don't know," Urahara admitted, "which is half the reason I'm trying not to panic right now. I feel like there's a sizable chunk of the puzzle we're missing, and don't want to miss it because I'm too busy panicking to think properly."

Urahara then looked Isshin directly in the eye. "I also can't help but feel like your son is involved somehow."

Isshin sighed. "I don't _want_ to believe Ichigo is involved in this, but he really threw me for a loop the other day. His reiatsu all but vanished overnight, and his reaction to me was... odd." He rubbed his chin again. "If not for the fact that when I _can_ sense his reiatsu it's still recognizably his, I might suspect him of being replaced with some sort of impostor. As it is, I can't help but wonder what he ran into that made him subconsciously reign in to such an absurd degree."

Urahara frowned. "And given said reigning in, it makes it very difficult to track his movements lately. Did you notice—?"

"That the Shinigami paid him a visit the night after? Hard not to notice, really."

"She came by and wanted a gigai."

Isshin raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

" _Before_ she met your son."

There was a moment of confused silence. "Why would she—?"

"I have no idea, but _something_ very strange is going on here."

* * *

Ichigo sighed. "Okay, well, I guess neither of us are beyond stupid mistakes, but I can't imagine how they're interpreting _that_ one."

Rukia shrugged. "We might have to just give up and tell them."

"Not a chance," Ichigo said, with a shudder. "Not unless we _absolutely_ have to."

"Why not?" Rukia asked, surprised at his vehemence.

"Can you imagine that conversation? 'Oh hey, Dad, I came back from the future to make things better. The world? No, it didn't end; in fact, we beat Aizen, the Visored got pardoned, and neither you nor my sisters got killed in the process; I just didn't like it as much as I could. Why are you trying to strangle me like that?'"

Rukia opened her mouth, considered it for a moment longer, then shrugged. "Point. I wouldn't want Kisuke to feel justified in giving us shit over that, even- _especially_ since he was eventually the one that sent us back."

"Right, so we need a different strategy to deal with them, because there's no way they're not suspicious, and my dad has _definitely_ noticed something off about me."

Rukia thought about it for a minute. "Well, I have an idea, but you aren't going to like it."

Ichigo blinked, then blanched. "Absolutely not."

She just smirked. "The fact that you know what I'm about to suggest means that even you know it _would_ work, though."

"No," he insisted.

"Well, then," she said, her smirk turning into an evil grin, "it's a good thing I don't need your permission, now do I?"

* * *

As Ichigo walked down the hallway trying to figure out how he would get home before Rukia could without leaving his body behind (because showing up at the door as a definitely-not-15-years-old Shinigami would be far worse than just allowing Rukia to go through with her terrible, terrible plan) _and_ without any bystanders catching him doing something impossible, he realized they'd just walked past Uryuu, who was gaping at him and Rukia with a cross between shock and disgust on his face. Ichigo immediately forgot what he had been thinking about in favour of advancing Operation Fuck With Uryuu.

"Hey, Uryuu!" he said, clapping his hand on the other boy's shoulder and grinning madly. "What's the matter?" Then he dropped his voice to a stage whisper _just_ loud enough for Rukia but nobody outside of the three of them to hear. "You're not afraid of the Shinigami transfer student, are you?"

Uryuu scowled and threw his hand off. "What is _wrong_ with you? Do you just not care who might be listening?"

Ichigo shrugged. "Not really. It's not like there's an evil overlord hiding in the shadows watching everything we do or say. I mean, that would just be ridiculous."

He had, of course, made certain there weren't any of Aizen's camera flies in the school before he'd even started talking. He wasn't a _complete_ idiot, after all.

Uryuu just looked at him with a look that said 'clearly, I have underestimated just how crazy this person is, and now I need to extricate myself from this situation as quickly as possible'.

It was a very eloquent look. It helped that Ichigo had seen the exact same look on Uryuu's face many times, over the years.

Ichigo patted him on the back before he could flee, however. "Come on, join us for a walk."

"We're supposed to be going to _class_ ," Uryuu pointed out, icily.

"Yeah, but talking to you sounds much more entertaining," Ichigo replied with a shrug. "You can tell us all about why you seem to hate Shinigami."

"I have no desire to discuss it with either of you," Uryuu protested, once again trying to extricate himself. "Kindly leave me alone."

Ichigo sighed. "Whatever, ya stuck-up Quincy. Tell your dad I said 'hi'."

Uryuu was so startled he didn't even remember to look embarrassed as he fell flat on his face while Ichigo and Rukia kept walking, and Rukia tried very hard not to burst out laughing.

She tried very, _very_ hard.

* * *

"So," Rukia asked while they walked home (they had somehow silently agreed not to try to beat the other back to Ichigo's house), "why are you tormenting Uryuu? I mean, not that it isn't entertaining, but what's up with that?"

Ichigo shrugged. "I needed to do something to avoid the sheer drudgery involved in going through high school again. If I remember right, he doesn't really have any friends at this point, so if I can shock him out of it, he might become more social sooner."

He coughed nervously and continued. "Also, it's way too fun to stop now."

They both felt it at exactly the same time. _Shit,_ Ichigo thought as he dove into a hiding spot and began focusing on the Kidō that would separate his spirit from his body. _Orihime's brother; I should've realized the timetable on that would probably be moved up, too._

Rukia was already gone by the time he drew his Zanpakutō, having slipped out of her gigai and not wasted any time Shunpo-ing away.

Ichigo paused only briefly along the way to surreptitiously take out a camera fly that appeared to be positioned to watch the proceedings. _Really, Aizen?_ Ichigo thought. _What a voyeuristic fuck._

Fortunately, Rukia had positioned herself between the confused Plus and the Hollows almost the same instant they'd arrived, and Ichigo sliced through both of them on his way past.

"Is that it?" he asked, spinning around, and began putting barriers around them just in case it wasn't.

Rukia pulled out her Denreishinki to double-check (although Ichigo highly doubted Aizen would let a warning reach them, if he were that intent on converting this particular soul into a Hollow; it's not like it had warned them about _these_ two, after all), then shrugged and joined his barriers with her own. "It looks that way."

They turned as one towards Inoue Sora, who was staring at them both in terrified confusion. _Can't say I really blame the guy,_ Ichigo thought.

 _Yeah,_ Zangetsu threw in with a chuckle. _Your face frightens children, after all._

_He's older than me! Or, wait, I think he is? Wait, how old was he when he died?_

Zangetsu's derisive snort was the only response to that, and Ichigo imagined rolling his eyes _really hard_ at him.

"Are you all right?" Rukia asked, holding out her hand. Sora stared at it like it was a venomous snake.

_Now _there's_ a mental image for you._

_Don't you have anything better to do than provide color commentary for my life?_ Ichigo thought back sourly.

_Obviously not, since you don't seem likely to get into an interesting fight any time soon._

"Wha... what are you?" Sora finally got out.

"We're Shinigami, and we're going to send you on to Soul Society."

Sora's eyes widened and he started moving backwards. Ichigo gave him his best attempt at a reassuring smile. "Relax, Sora. My name's Kurosaki Ichigo... do you remember me?"

The name clearly sparked some recognition. "Kurosaki..."

"That's right; you, uh, died at our clinic." Ichigo winced a bit at that, but couldn't really think of a nicer way to phrase it.

"You look..." Sora trailed off, sizing up Ichigo. "You look different."

"Yeah, that's... a long story," Ichigo replied somewhat lamely, then shrugged. "Don't worry about it right now; we need to send you on before any other Hollows try hunting you down."

"I can't go!" Sora shouted, panicking. "Orihime—"

"Relax," Ichigo said, trying to make his voice sound as soothing as possible. "I'll make sure nothing happens to your sister. I give you my word."

Of course, he would have done that no matter what Sora wanted, but he was sure the thought was appreciated regardless. Sora looked between Ichigo and Rukia, then stared back towards his sister. "O-Okay," he finally said, nodding. Rukia stepped forward and performed the Soul Burial, and they watched the Plus disappear together.

"He wasn't kidding."

Ichigo blinked and looked down to see Rukia staring at him. "About what?"

She just pointed at his face. "You really do look different, and I don't just mean from the first time through. It's... hard to put a finger on what it is, exactly."

 _Were his eyes always that—?_ Rukia thought to herself. _Never mind._

Ichigo scowled. "I guess that's one more reason not to let anyone see me outside my body if I can help it. I don't suppose you know any Kidō for altering appearances?"

Rukia shook her head. "Kisuke might, but I don't really see how we can ask him."

"Hmm," Ichigo nodded thoughtfully. "Not without a very good reason for him to answer the question honestly, anyway. Guess I'll just have to keep out of sight as much as possible."

Rukia's mouth twitched as though it wanted to smile, but she got it under control. "I suppose we could always dye your hair black and pretend you're the vengeful ghost of Shiba Kaien," she deadpanned.

Ichigo just glared at her.

* * *

As they arrived at his front door and Rukia knocked, Ichigo belatedly realized that he'd gotten distracted and forgotten that he'd wanted to stop Rukia from going through with her plan. _Crap._

"Good afternoon!" Rukia greeted Isshin enthusiastically. "My name is Kuchiki Rukia, a recent transfer student to your son's school, and—"

"—And now that she's introduced herself, she really needs to be on her way!" Ichigo cut in, grabbing her by the arm and trying to drag her away.

"No I don't!" she said in the same cheerful tone of voice, effortlessly slipping out of his grasp. "I just wanted to let you know—"

Ichigo made another swipe for Rukia, but she dodged without even trying. "—that, due to unfortunate circumstances, I need a place to stay, and—"

Just barely stopping himself from using Kidō or something that would be a similar level of spectacularly bad idea to stop the words from coming out of her mouth, Ichigo finally settled for bodily tackling her... which worked about as well as trying to grab her had. She simply jumped over him and resumed talking. "—was wondering if I could stay with you, seeing as how your son—"

Ichigo gave it up as too late by that point braced himself for the inevitable fallout. "—has offered to bring me up to speed with the rest of the class."

 _Yes,_ Ichigo thought with a sigh, _I'm sure your _study group_ plan will keep him from asking any awkward questions. It's almost worse than just—_

Isshin's reaction was exactly what Ichigo had expected. "MASAKI!" he shouted, running up to the giant poster of his wife, because Ichigo's father was hardly going to just leave such an obvious setup untouched. "OUR SON HAS BECOME A TRUE TEENAGER AND STARTED TAKING AN INTEREST IN _GIRLS!_ "

"Shut up, Goat-Face!" Ichigo and Karin shouted simultaneously. Ichigo continued. "Also, I didn't offer anything!"

Rukia gave him a mischievous grin. "Oh, don't be so modest, Kurosaki-san! It was very kind of you."

Ichigo's eyebrow twitched as he struggled to keep his reiatsu contained, or he'd probably do something permanent to the entire neighborhood. "I hate you," he said instead.

At least she wouldn't be sleeping in his closet, this time.

* * *

_I guess I was a little hasty with that declaration,_ he reflected not ten minutes later as Rukia shot him a bemused look from her perch on his windowsill. "What? Just because they _think_ I'm in the other room doesn't mean I have to _actually_ stay there."

"You know there's a zero percent chance of fooling my father in that regard, and you being up here isn't exactly going to make him _less_ suspicious."

"So?" she said with a shrug. "The point wasn't actually to make him not be suspicious; it was to make it less likely he'd do anything too harmful without us being able to notice before it got out of hand. If he's keeping close to us, we don't have to worry as much about staying close to him, and as far as avoiding giving away too much information goes? With our barriers, not even _he_ could listen in on us."

Then Rukia shot Ichigo a lopsided grin that made him subconsciously verify every potential exit from the room. "Also, I kind of _miss_ that closet, thank you very much."

* * *

"She moved in."

Urahara blinked at Isshin. "I assume you mean that she moved in with you."

"With Ichigo, really. She's theoretically staying with Yuzu and Karin, but she left her gigai there and went straight to his room." Isshin's expression became baffled. "I couldn't hear anything when I tried to listen in at the door and their reiatsu clearly showed that when he went to bed, she slept in the _closet_ for some reason."

The look of sheer confusion on Urahara's face was one Isshin very rarely got to see. "What on earth could have happened between those two in such a short amount of time?"

* * *

Aizen watched the brief video clip over and over again, growing steadily more aggravated with each viewing. Just as the blur of a Shihakushō came into frame, the feed cut out, preventing identification of whatever Shinigami was interfering with his efforts in Karakura Town. Combined with the disappointing performance of Fishbone D, and Aizen was beginning to think he might have to take drastic measures to identify and deal with whatever unknown element was causing such disruption.

Well, no matter; he would just have to move things along a little quicker.

It wasn't as though any pathetic Shinigami could stand against him, after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In the anime, Sora became Acidwire as a direct result of Grand Fisher. In the manga, it's implied he became a hollow on his own, as a result of jealousy towards Orihime's friends. Since I already used the mantis-like hollow from the first episode of the anime (mostly to give them more things to do on the first day), I figured I might as well go with the anime's interpretation here as well, since just waiting around for Acidwire to attack would kinda make Ichigo and Rukia look like assholes if it weren't explicitly spelled out somehow that the anime's version of events didn't happen... even though I just spent plenty of time explaining why the anime's version of events _did_ happen. Oh well.


	4. Unforeseen Consequences

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The positive feedback has been gratifying; I wrote this almost entirely for the purpose of getting the idea out of my head, so every time somebody comments that they're enjoying it, it makes it feel even more worthwhile.
> 
> That being said, don't be afraid to comment if you didn't like it, or found something confusing, or just disagreed with one of my decisions! If you spent the time reading even part of this and came away disappointed, I'd appreciate it if you took just a little more time and told me about it.

After having promised her brother he would take care of her, Ichigo knew he wouldn't be able to avoid Orihime any longer.

Not that he'd been _actively_ avoiding her, exactly; there wasn't much of a need to actively avoid somebody with whom you did not normally hang out and who tended to stammer if you did actually end up meeting. However, they were still in the same class and she was still friends with Tatsuki, and that meant that the fact that he hadn't spoken a single word to her since arriving in the past could only be because he hadn't wanted to. Maybe nobody who wasn't from the future would be able to tell... but Rukia was, and if she did, she'd berate him for it all night (and, given their anti-eavesdropping barriers, he couldn't even try to guilt her with keeping other people awake in an attempt to make it stop).

So, casual conversation with Orihime. He could do this. It was easy.

Ichigo stepped through the classroom door and saw Orihime's face.

 _Oh God, I can't do this,_ Ichigo thought, and turned around.

 _For fuck's sake,_ Zangetsu groaned, _just grow a pair and say 'hello'._

 _Nope, I can't do it. I'm out of here._ Before he could actually make good on that, though, he saw Rukia come around the corner and quickly turned his 180-degree turn into a 360-degree one and re-entered the classroom.

_I don't know if I'm impressed or just disappointed, now._

_Fuck you,_ Ichigo thought back, and tried not to visibly sweat as he walked towards his desk. "Hey, Tatsuki; Inoue." He nodded to them both as he walked past.

_You couldn't even say 'Orihime', huh?_

_Hey, I _always_ used to call her Inoue. It would be more suspicious to use her given name._

Zangetsu just snorted.

"Hey, Ichigo." Tatsuki replied. "Do you know why Ishida was looking for you?"

Tripping on the chair leg was solely because of how startled he was by what Tatsuki had said and completely unrelated to Orihime turning to look at him. "He was? I don't know. Why isn't he here?"

"He said he had some sort of emergency. He seemed pretty agitated."

 _Maybe he finally noticed my spirit ribbon is red?_ "If it was important, I'm sure he'll find me." _Or maybe he can't find my spirit ribbon when my reiatsu is suppressed like this? Damn it, I knew I should have learned more about them before it became vitally important._

_You never learn about _anything_ until it becomes vitally important. Also, you? Do research? _How_ long did it take you to learn how to do Kidō, again?_

Ichigo fumed, but could not really disagree with that assessment.

* * *

"What was that back there?" Rukia asked as soon as class let out.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Ichigo said, carefully not looking in her direction.

"You were nervous around Orihime," she replied, getting aggravated that he was making her be more explicit even though she was fairly confident that, regardless of what he'd just said, he knew _exactly_ what she meant.

Ichigo shrugged, still not making eye contact. "It was an awkward period in our lives; she has a massive crush on me, and it took a while to get to the point where we could have a real conversation. And, I mean, it's not like things are going to happen that way this time around, so I have no idea how to deal with it."

Rukia scowled. _We _both_ know that's not even _close_ to the whole story._ "Ichigo..." she said warningly.

"I _don't_ want to talk about it," he said, and she reluctantly dropped the matter.

For now.

* * *

Uryuu was one of very few people Ichigo knew who could somehow make sitting down seem like a belligerent act. Ichigo was more than a little surprised he was voluntarily associating with him and Rukia at all, after their encounter yesterday. "Missed you in class, this morning. Can I help you?"

After surreptitiously making sure nobody else was eating lunch closely enough to eavesdrop, Uryuu leaned forward and hissed, "What the fuck is wrong with your spirit ribbon?"

Ichigo blinked in surprise. "I have absolutely no idea," he said, honestly. "Is something wrong with my spirit ribbon?"

Rukia gasped next to him, and Ichigo turned to see that she'd already decided to investigate. In her hand was neither the white of a human soul nor the red of a Shinigami; instead, she seemed to be holding onto a thread covered in a splotchy mixture of both red and white, in equal measure, with no apparent pattern. Ichigo rubbed his eyes, but the visual didn't change. "Huh. That's different."

Uryuu's eyes widened. "You don't know what that means either?"

"I've never heard of such a thing," said Rukia, unable to tear her eyes off the ribbon. "As far as I know, it shouldn't be possible."

'It definitely wasn't like this before we went back in time,' she didn't need to say; they both knew it. Ichigo made a quick check of Rukia's spirit ribbon, but it was a perfectly ordinary red.

 _Well, this isn't going to help me blend in at all,_ Ichigo thought sourly as Zangetsu laughed at him. Again.

"What _are_ you?" Uryuu asked, boggling at him.

"Would you believe me if I said that, a week ago, I was just an ordinary, 15-year-old high school student?"

"No."

Ichigo considered that. _Fair enough, I suppose._ "Okay, would you believe me if I said that, a week ago, _as far as I knew_ I was just an ordinary, 15-year-old high school student?"

That time, it was Uryuu's turn to ponder for a moment. "I suppose I can believe that."

"Good, because it happens to be true." _If massively misleading._

Uryuu looked as though he was about to say something, then his eyes flicked over to Rukia and he grimaced, but said nothing. Rukia sighed. "Would you be more comfortable if I left you two alone?"

"Don't bother," Uryuu said at the same time as Ichigo said, "You might as well."

Uryuu scowled at him, but said nothing else as Rukia stood up and took her lunch with her. Ichigo took the time it took for her to get out of sight to consider exactly what he was going to say. _Of course, being out of sight doesn't mean she won't be able to hear us, but if he can't guess that, _I'm_ certainly not going to tell him._ "I'll give you three questions."

"What do you mean, 'three questions'?"

"I mean," Ichigo said, looking Uryuu directly in the eye, "that you can ask me any three questions you want and I will answer truthfully, to the best of my ability."

 _Uh, are you sure that's a good idea?_ Zangetsu actually sounded nervous.

 _I feel like I owe him that much,_ Ichigo replied. _If he asks something _really_ dangerous, I'll just tell him that, and give him a chance to ask another question instead._

Uryuu gave him a searching look, as though trying to figure out if this was some sort of bizarre trap. Finally, he decided on something to ask. "How did you know I was a Quincy?"

"I've seen you use your powers," Ichigo replied truthfully. _Even if it wasn't in this timeline._

"That's impossible," Uryuu replied immediately.

"If you say so." Ichigo shrugged.

Uryuu's eyes narrowed suspiciously. " _When_ did you see me use my powers?"

 _Gee, that didn't take long at all._ Zangetsu didn't sound all that happy about being proven right.

"An accurate answer to that question could be dangerous," Ichigo warned. "Are you sure you want to know?"

Uryuu was silent for a moment before he spoke again. "I want to ask a clarifying question, but I don't know if you'll hold it against me."

"I wouldn't," Ichigo said, "but I think I can guess what you want to ask; and no, if you decide you don't really want the answer, I wouldn't count the question against you."

"Very well, then I have another clarifying question. _Who_ would the answer be dangerous to?"

"Everyone."

Uryuu shot him a disbelieving look. "What, in the whole world?"

"Eventually, yes," Ichigo said earnestly.

"In that case," Uryuu said, looking unnerved, "I don't really want to know right now."

"Fair enough." Ichigo knew Uryuu would use the mere fact that the answer could be considered dangerous as a kind of answer in and of itself, but hopefully it would be a less dangerous one than if he'd actually told the truth. "Do you want to save your other two questions for later, then?"

"For now, yes; I would also appreciate it if you took any questions I ask you in the future as just ordinary questions until and unless I say I want the absolute truth from you."

Ichigo smirked at Uryuu's desire to close off any loopholes even though he couldn't have any way to know Ichigo was telling the truth in the first place. "Of course."

* * *

"I think he trusts that you mean what you say," Rukia said without preamble when she rejoined Ichigo after Uryuu left. "Ironically, the fact that your spirit ribbon isn't purely red may mean he inherently distrusts you less, this time around."

Ichigo nodded thoughtfully. "I wonder if I should tell him about Mayuri."

Rukia's head snapped around. "And how _exactly_ would you do that without telling him how you know?"

"...I could ask him not to ask me how I know?" Ichigo suggested nervously.

The slap upside the head that earned him was, Ichigo knew all too well, fully deserved.

* * *

"What are we going to do about Shibata?" Ichigo asked that night.

They were sitting on opposite sides of Ichigo's windowsill, staring out at the night sky. For a moment, he thought Rukia was ignoring him, but then she spoke without turning her head. "Did you ever get the whole story of how they met out of Chad?"

Ichigo shook his head. "Never thought to ask again, really."

"Then I don't see how we have much choice but to wait for him to bring Shibata to school." Then she shrugged. "Or we could constantly follow him around, and just hope that whatever event it was that brought them together hasn't somehow been prevented already."

Ichigo frowned at that. They obviously couldn't afford to follow Chad everywhere, but the first time around he'd gotten a steel girder dropped on his head and been hit by a motorcycle before he brought the possessed parakeet to the school. Granted, the motorcycle and its rider had suffered more damage than Chad had, but Ichigo disliked not doing anything about it even if his friend would probably be fine. "What if just one of us follows Chad?"

Rukia sat upright as she considered this possibility. After a moment, she nodded thoughtfully, then turned to Ichigo and said, "It would have to be you, of course."

He nodded; if he tried to perform Rukia's patrol duties, the probability of him being spotted in Shinigami form skyrocketed. "It obviously didn't happen during school hours, so unless things have already changed too much, it should happen either tonight or tomorrow night." He thought about it a bit more. "Probably tomorrow night; I doubt even Aizen would have somehow arranged for one of my friends to adopt a haunted animal just to see how I'd react, so the timing shouldn't be affected by us yet. I further doubt that Shrieker would wait a whole day before he started his mischief, so that makes tomorrow night the most likely... but I should probably check the whole week, just to be sure."

Then Ichigo sighed. "I guess I'm not going to be getting much sleep."

Rukia gave him a bemused look. "So what will you do if you're right, and you actually catch Shrieker before he has a chance to do anything?"

"Kill him, obviously," he said with a shrug.

Rukia snorted. "You don't think the gates of hell opening up when I'm nowhere in the vicinity would attract attention?"

Ichigo winced, Rukia's words from the other day echoing in his mind: 'It's a good thing I'm here, or you might've done something _really_ stupid.' He sighed. "I don't suppose you have a better idea?"

There was that panic-inducing smirk again. "As a matter of fact, I do."

* * *

"That is a _terrible_ idea," Ichigo said emphatically.

"You have a better one?" Rukia shot back.

Ichigo opened and closed his mouth a few times, but no words came out.

"That's what I thought."

* * *

Ichigo yawned on his way through the window; when Chad had gone to sleep, he'd kept an eye out for a little while longer to make sure he wouldn't get a midnight call to go meet some shady parakeet salesman (hey, anything was possible), but nothing had happened, so he decided to call it early and get at least some sleep. After what felt like only a few minutes, though, he found himself waking up again as his ingrained threat responses activated.

"GOOD MORNING, ICHI—"

Ichigo calmly slipped out of his bed and allowed his father to slam harmlessly into it. "There is literally no chance of that actually working on me, you realize."

"Oho, your skills have improved! But have they improved enough to—"

Isshin found himself face-down on the floor, his arms trapped behind him. "Apparently so. Well done, my son! You have learned all that I can teach you."

Ichigo snorted and let go. "Whatever, weirdo." Then he looked at his clock and winced. "I need to get ready for school; why don't you go annoy somebody else?"

"MASAKI!" Isshin cried tearfully as he ran out of his son's room, and Ichigo tuned out the rest of whatever nonsense he had decided to spout this time. _Either I was out later than I thought, or this week is really going to suck. I hope that stupid parakeet shows up soon._

* * *

Urahara barely kept himself from sighing as Isshin entered his shop while he was in the middle of sorting some inventory. The man had never felt the need to engage in this much conversation until the past couple days, and it was both sickeningly heartwarming and extremely annoying. "What is it this time?"

"Something weird happened."

Urahara smirked at that. "Several weird things have happened lately."

Isshin rolled his eyes. "I mean something new."

"I guessed that."

"Ichigo wasn't in his body last night."

Urahara very nearly dropped the box he was holding in surprise. "He _what!?_ "

"I slipped into his room when I noticed I couldn't sense any reiatsu. Not just the usual 'it's very hard to sense him lately' kind of thing, but absolutely nothing. The Kuchiki girl was gone and his body was vacant. Just breathing."

Urahara frowned. "What about his chain of fate?"

"Not there."

"What do you mean not there?"

Isshin snorted and raised an eyebrow as if to say 'What do you _think_ I mean?' Urahara blinked. "I presume you'd be more panicky if this condition hadn't changed."

"He was definitely there when I woke up him this morning. Furthermore," he continued, frowning, "his instinctual response was far quicker than usual. He didn't even seem to think it was unusual; his experience level seems as though it's made a spontaneous jump."

Urahara frowned, a flicker of suspicion gathering in the back of his mind. "Of course, the missing chain can mean only one thing."

Isshin nodded. "I need you to do me a favour."

* * *

Ichigo blinked in surprise as he entered the classroom. Uryuu was _glaring_ at him. "Did I do something to piss him off?" Ichigo asked nobody in particular.

Tatsuki looked up. "He's been doing that ever since he got to school. You didn't notice?"

"I guess not," Ichigo said, sitting down. "He wasn't like that when we talked yesterday, though."

When he reached for his school supplies, he found what appeared to be a note stuck to the underside of his desk. It took him only a momentary glance to realize it was Uryuu's handwriting: _'When were you going to tell me that Kuchiki's been staying at your house?'_

Ichigo winced. _Craaap. That might have undone that whole 'not inherently distrusting me' thing._

Zangetsu, apparently, had decided not to laugh at and/or berate him for this particular fuck-up, although Ichigo wasn't entirely sure why. _I guess I'll try talking to him at lunch._

* * *

"It wasn't my idea in the first place," he said without preamble.

Uryuu scowled. "The sleeping arrangements, or not telling me about it?"

"I didn't even know I was _supposed_ to tell you about it. I thought you weren't particularly interested in being friends with me anyway."

"I—er, that—" Uryuu took a deep breath. "That's not the point! You declaring, out of the blue, that you want to be my friend when you're hanging out with a Shinigami is bad enough, but then you don't even tell me that you put her up at your place!"

Ichigo rolled his eyes. "I _didn't_ put her up at my place; she insisted on it, and I couldn't stop her."

Uryuu scoffed and stood, packing up his lunch in an obvious attempt to get Ichigo to leave him alone. "I have no interest in any further discussion with you as long as you continue to associate with Shinigami."

"Uryuu," Ichigo said with a sigh, "you really need to stop blaming yourself for your grandfather's death."

Uryuu's head snapped around, his brow furrowed and his mouth curled in a scowl. "Don't you _ever_ talk about my grandfather to me! And how the hell do you know about him, anyway?"

"Do you want me to answer that question with the absolute truth?" Ichigo asked.

Uryuu blinked in surprise, then resumed scowling, and stomped off. "Leave me alone, Kurosaki."

Ichigo sighed again. "Well, I tried."

 _I told you it was a bad idea,_ Zangetsu finally said, smugly.

_You are absolutely no help at all, you know that?_

At least Rukia's plan would give him a chance to have a little fun; he desperately needed a new source of entertainment since messing with Uryuu's head was out.

With luck, he was right about tonight being the night Chad met Shibata.

* * *

When he was alive, he had been a serial killer. He'd rather enjoyed the thrill of the hunt, the terror of his victims... but that was nothing compared to what it was like now. He was particularly enjoying his favourite game, tormenting the soul of the brat who'd killed him. It brought him no end of amusement, and he'd even snagged two Shinigami that had tried to send the boy's soul on. He grinned as he saw the parakeet's cage surrounded by children, and casually pushed a steel girder off the roof.

Then he blinked in confusion as it vanished in midair. "What the—?"

He grabbed another and hurled it downwards, only for it to vanish as well. "What is going on here!?" He looked around, but he couldn't see nor sense anyone else nearby.

His frustration grew over the next half an hour as everything he tried seemed to magically reverse itself before it had a chance to touch the tall boy that had apparently decided to take the parakeet with him. He tried knocking a tree over, only for it to fall in exactly the opposite direction. He tried to cause a traffic accident, only for all the cars involved to spontaneously change course and avoid a collision with each other or any pedestrians. Finally, his rage grew so great he decided to attack the boy directly.

At which point a knee covered in black cloth slammed into his face and he careened through a fence.

"Miss, watch out!" Shibata cried, causing Chad to look around in confusion.

"Don't worry," Rukia told him, drawing her Zanpakutō. "I can handle this."

Ichigo smirked as he hid out of sight, keeping absolute control over his reiatsu so nobody would even guess he was there. Using his prodigious skill in Shunpo, trained by the Goddess of Flash herself, on such a low-level Hollow verged on being cruel. On the other hand, Shrieker was an asshole; Ichigo had no sympathy to spare for the likes of him.

"Another Shinigami!" Shrieker cried with glee. "Your souls always taste—"

"You talk too much," Rukia said as she sheathed Sode no Shirayuki again, and Shrieker screamed in pain as the gates of hell opened up for him.

Rukia turned back to look at Chad, and then sighed. "I guess I should have this conversation in my gigai," she said, then nodded to the parakeet. "I'll be back in a moment." With that, she disappeared in a blur of Shunpo. Ichigo decided that he might as well head back to his body as well, and took off himself.

Chad apparently gave up looking for the mysterious "miss" the parakeet had called out a warning to, then turned back and picked up the cage. "She defeated the monster," Shibata said, causing Chad to stop mid-step. "I wasn't expecting that. I guess I'm glad, although I suppose this means that... I won't see my—"

"He could never have brought your mother back," Rukia said, as she returned in her gigai. "The dead can't be brought back to life."

Chad blinked in confusion. "Transfer student?"

"Hey, Chad. Sorry for the confusion; I'll take care of your new friend. It's not a good idea to leave ghosts sitting around like that."

"You deal with ghosts?"

She nodded. "A monster put a boy's soul in that parakeet and tormented him; it's okay, though, it's gone now."

Rukia stepped forward, but Chad suddenly put himself between her and the cage, eyeing her warily. "I don't know you well enough to trust you," he said.

"It's all right, Chad," Ichigo said from behind him.

Chad's eyes widened in surprise. "Ichigo?"

Ichigo walked over to Rukia. "I'll vouch for her; she knows what she's doing."

Chad blinked as he looked between the two of them, then he nodded and stood aside. Rukia knelt in front of the parakeet. "You've been out of your body too long, but I can send you on to Soul Society."

"But—"

"Your mother's probably there," Ichigo cut in. "I can't guarantee that you'll ever find her, but you at least have a chance; that's more than you have if you stay here."

Rukia nodded. "If I can, I'll come find you on the other side; would that be all right?"

At Shibata's affirmative nod, Rukia closed her eyes. "I'll leave my body and perform the soul burial now," she said, and Ichigo caught her suddenly-limp gigai and lowered it to the ground.

"She can leave her body?" Chad asked, staring worriedly at the gigai.

"It's not her real body," Ichigo answered. "You can't see her right now, but she's right there; she'll be done soon."

Rukia pressed Sode no Shirayuki's hilt to Shibata's forehead, and she and Ichigo waved goodbye as his soul departed the world of the living. Then she climbed back into her gigai and sat up, turning to face Chad. "If I leave your memory of this intact, will you tell anybody about it?"

Chad looked to Ichigo, who gave his best impression of a reassuring smile, then looked back to Rukia and nodded. "Ichigo vouched for you; I'll keep your secret."

"Thank you," Rukia said, and stood up. "Now I think we'd all better go home."

* * *

"We need to make a decision," Rukia said as they once more sat on Ichigo's windowsill. "Me staying longer than I'm supposed to could be a catastrophic mistake."

"I don't like the idea of you heading back to Soul Society alone," Ichigo grumbled. "On the other hand, there's still things that need taking care of here."

She tapped her chin thoughtfully. "I might be able to convince Urahara to set up a private communications channel; it's not like he hasn't already realized there was a specific reason I wanted a gigai, so it wouldn't even really be giving up new information."

Ichigo frowned. "Yeah, but then you're basically just asking him to listen in on all of our conversations."

"I suppose that's a good point. Maybe we could try infiltrating Hueco Mundo and dealing with some threats early?"

Ichigo blinked. "I dunno, that might just make Aizen go defensive and we'd have a heck of a time chasing him down. We know where he is, right now, so we have at least a chance to catch him unawares, before he—"

Ichigo abruptly clamped his mouth shut and spun around. Rukia turned, reaching for her Zanpakutō. "What is it?"

Instead of answering, Ichigo reached under his bed and pulled out a small mechanical insect. He examined it for a moment, then smashed it to pieces. "Not one of Aizen's. In fact, it seemed more like Kisuke's work."

"Damn it," Rukia said with a groan as she rested her face in her hands. "Well, at least we didn't say _too_ much before you noticed it."

Ichigo snorted. "I'm starting to think it might be less effort to just go ahead and tell them we're from the future, at this point."

"I think you were right earlier; not unless we have to."

* * *

Isshin winced as at the feedback as Ichigo smashed the literal and figurative bug. "Ow."

"We half-expected them to find it," Urahara pointed out. "That's why it was the decoy."

"Not one of Aizen's," Ichigo's voice came from the remaining audio feed, and both men stiffened in surprise. "In fact, it seemed more like Kisuke's work."

"He thinks of you as _'Kisuke'?_ " Isshin said, surprised. Urahara made a silent 'shush' motion.

Rukia's voice came over in response. "Damn it. Well, at least we didn't say _too_ much before you noticed it."

There was the sound of Ichigo snorting, and Urahara had actually stopped breathing in anticipation of what they might say next.

"I'm starting to think it might be less effort to just go ahead and tell them we're from the future, at this point."

Isshin's startled cry very nearly blew out Urahara's eardrums.


	5. Letting Loose

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alternate chapter title: "Prevenge is a Dish Best Served in Urahara's Face"

Ichigo and Rukia knocked on the door of Urahara's shop simultaneously, he in his body and she in her gigai.

"We need to talk," Ichigo said the moment Urahara's face appeared.

Urahara blinked at them, then shrugged. "I suppose we do. I don't believe we've formally been introduced; I'm—"

"Hold that thought," Rukia interrupted, stepping past him and setting up privacy barriers. Ichigo closed the door behind them and turned back to face the patiently-waiting shopkeep.

"Urahara Kisuke," Ichigo said once Rukia had finished. "Former Captain of the 12th Division of the Gotei 13, in exile for about a century. I'm well aware of who you are."

Ichigo nodded at a wall that, Urahara realized after only a moment, was the one Tessai was sleeping behind. "Your associate is Tsukabishi Tessai, former Commander of the Kidō Corps, who went into exile at the same time. Aizen's fault. As usual. You are, of course, well aware that my name is Kurosaki Ichigo. I know you are well-acquainted with my father, Kurosaki Isshin, whose name was formerly Shiba Isshin, and was Captain of the 10th Division."

Urahara blinked. "You are remarkably well-informed for a 15-year-old who, as recently as a week ago, I would've bet anything you cared to name didn't even know that Shinigami existed."

Urahara frowned and turned to Rukia. "I'm also quite certain that he couldn't have gotten this information from an unseated officer of the 13th Division, so would you care to fill me in?"

"We found the second bug," Rukia said instead of answering. "We know you know."

"Oh," Urahara said, then he nodded. "I see. I guess you should know your father's in the back room, then."

"I do know," Ichigo said. "He's within the privacy barriers. You can come in, now!"

Isshin came in from the back room with a sheepish grin. "Hello, Ichigo."

Ichigo nodded. "Hello, Dad. I guess it's about time we got things out in the open."

With that, Ichigo concentrated for a moment, and then stepped out of his body. Urahara and Isshin gaped at him. "To answer your questions: yes, I just used Kidō to leave my body. Yes, I am... a fair bit older than 15 years old. No, the world did not come to an apocalyptic end. Yes, Rukia and I both came from the same timeline. No, I don't particularly want to go into detail about it. Yes, I took the Hōgyoku."

"What did you do with it?" Urahara asked, eyes narrowed.

Ichigo gave him a flat stare. "I put it somewhere safe."

" _Where_ do you think is 'safe' for something like—?"

"Do you really think I'm going to tell you where it is?" Ichigo said with a snort. "I haven't even told _Rukia_ exactly what I did with it."

"I _had_ a plan for—"

"Your so-called plan," Ichigo said, scowling, "was a terrible one, and you should feel bad for even contemplating it in the first place."

Urahara winced. "I take it that means—?"

"That Aizen got his hands on it, originally? Almost immediately, yes. He combined it with his and, well, that god-complex got even worse."

Isshin was still staring at his son's much-older-than-expected features, his mouth hanging open. Ichigo sighed. "Dad, you need to breathe now and then."

"Did—?" Isshin began huskily before clearing his throat and trying again. "Did I... your sisters, were they—?"

"You, Karin, and Yuzu all survived just fine," Ichigo said rolling his eyes. "If I have my way, you all will again. And didn't I just say I didn't want to go into detail about the old timeline? Honestly."

"What was with the two fake Hōgyokus?" Urahara asked.

Rukia winced. "My fault; neither of us realized the other had also gone back, and I was so surprised to find Ichigo's fake that I left both behind when I heard you coming."

Isshin blinked in surprise, then burst out laughing. "I have to admit, that is probably the _last_ reason I would have guessed."

Ichigo rolled his eyes. " _Anyway,_ there's a semi-immediate problem in that, the first time around, Grand Fisher attacked our family the next time we visited Mom's grave." Ichigo turned to Isshin, ignoring his father's sudden intake of breath. "I don't know if that's still going to happen with my reiatsu suppressed, but I have to assume it will. The problem is that Rukia is scheduled to go back before that happens."

"This is what you were discussing before you caught us eavesdropping," Urahara realized.

Rukia nodded. "I'll officially be overdue if I stick around long enough to be here for Grand Fisher. Which wouldn't normally be a problem; after all, Ichigo could probably handle it in his sleep. The problem is that me returning to Soul Society is the best chance Ichigo has to slip in undetected."

"It's not like I have my own Jigokuchō," Ichigo added with a snort.

"But," Urahara began, confused, "even if Rukia used her Jigokuchō to open the Senkaimon, your lack of one should cause you to wind up in the Dangai anyway."

Ichigo and Rukia shared a knowing glance. "That won't be a problem," they said simultaneously.

Urahara frowned at that, but guessed (correctly, as it happened) that the time-travelers would not be providing further clarification even if asked. "So, I suppose you want to know that your family will be safe if you were to head to Soul Society...?"

Ichigo nodded. "Dad, unless I'm very much mistaken, you probably regained your powers the night I came back in time, right?"

Isshin blinked, then sighed with relief. "That explains that. I was worried something horrible had happened, but..."

"But it was just that my inner Hollow has already awakened, so you have no connection to it anymore. Same thing that gave you your powers back the last time around, just a little sooner."

Isshin nodded. "I'll make sure to train thoroughly over the next month; Grand Fisher is mine."

Urahara's widened. "By 'awakened' you mean—?"

"I'm an honorary Visored, yes." Ichigo shrugged. "Or, well, I was. How _is_ Shinji, by the way?"

"Shinji?" Isshin said, confused. "As in... Hirako Shinji? Why would he still be in contact with him?"

Ichigo blinked, then turned to Urahara. "Wait, he doesn't know yet?"

Urahara winced. "Well, as I'm sure you know, he left Soul Society rather more recently, and, well—"

"...Right, okay then. I guess I leave that particular awkward conversation to you."

Ichigo ignored the death glare Urahara shot him after that, in favour of an idea that occurred to him. "Your training room blocks reiatsu, right? Maybe we should move this down there for a practical demonstration."

_Oh man,_ Zangetsu suddenly cut in, excited. _Are we going to have a real fight?_

_I don't see why not,_ Ichigo said. _We can give the old guys some training while Rukia and I finally let loose for the first time since we got here._

_This is the best day ever._

Rukia smiled, as though she'd had the exact same thought. "It will be nice to let loose, for a change."

Ichigo grinned, staring right at his father, who abruptly looked nervous. "Yes, yes it will."

* * *

As they were walking towards the training room, Urahara murmured to Ichigo, "That Kidō you used to leave your body..."

"You invented it," Ichigo said with a shrug. "I was never all that good with the technical side of things; at some point you tried to explain it to me, but all I heard was 'something something temporary virtual soul' before my ears just stopped listening."

"But of course," Urahara muttered to himself, "it would cause the spirit—"

"Oi!" Isshin shouted, as the two of them had lagged behind him and Rukia. "Geek out later!"

"Sorry, sorry," Urahara said jovially as he and Ichigo caught up. "You know how I get when pondering a new idea... or, I suppose, re-pondering a future one."

* * *

"I haven't done this in a while," Ichigo warned, "but here goes."

And with that, he donned his mask and Urahara and Isshin gasped simultaneously. Ichigo then fired off a low-powered Cero to demonstrate that it wasn't just for show, and then removed his mask.

"Actually," he admitted sheepishly, "I don't even need the mask anymore, which is why I haven't used it in a while."

Urahara blinked. "You can use Hollow abilities without Hollowfying?"

"It's kinda like I'm Hollowfied all the time? See, my Zanpakutō—Oh, right, I still have it sealed." Without speaking a single word, he brought his left hand up to join his right on Zangetsu's sealed hilt. As he pulled his hands apart, his right held his khyber knife and his left the smaller trench knife.

"You're a dual-wielder?" Isshin's eyes were somehow even wider than they'd been after Ichigo donned his mask.

"Yeah, see originally—" and then Ichigo stopped as he realized how convoluted the full explanation would be. He gave up on that idea rather quickly. "It's a very, _very_ long story. Suffice it to say, Zangetsu—" Isshin twitched at his son's Zanpakutō's name "—is influenced by both my Hollow and Quincy powers."

"So you _do_ have Quincy powers?" Urahara that time.

Ichigo shrugged. "From Mom, of course. Don't ask me to show them off, though; no matter how many times Uryuu tried to explain it to me, I could never get the hang of reishi manipulation. If I tried very, very hard, I might be able to pull off a Blut Vene, but I haven't even done that in years."

"So," Rukia said, drawing her own Zanpakutō, "shall we get started?"

"I think we shall," Ichigo replied, sealing Zangetsu again, turning to face Rukia. "Are you ready?"

She nodded, then flicked her eyes towards Isshin. Ichigo gave a very slight nod, and they both moved... taking Urahara and Isshin by complete surprise.

"Wow, you guys were not expecting that at _all_ ," Rukia said smugly as she sat on Isshin's back, having incapacitated him without him even having a chance to draw.

Urahara snorted from beneath Ichigo, who'd actually had to swipe Benihime away in order to plant the old shopkeeper into the ground. "I wasn't aware we were supposed to be participating in this exercise," he grumbled.

"And _I_ wasn't aware that battles had a habit of waiting until you know they're coming," Ichigo said with a laugh. "Man, you are _really_ rusty, Geta-Bōshi. You and Yoruichi need to train more often."

Before Urahara could respond by jabbing him in the eye or something, Ichigo leapt backwards as Rukia did the same. Rukia smirked. "Gentlemen, shall we try this again?"

Isshin gave a feral grin as he drew Engetsu. "Oh, this is gonna be so much fun."

* * *

_This is manifestly unfair,_ Urahara thought as Ichigo sliced through Benihime's Blood Mist Shield as though it weren't even there. _He clearly knows all of my techniques when I know none of his, and he _still_ hasn't even released his Shikai._

"Sing, Benihime!" Urahara cried out, firing a blast of crimson energy towards Ichigo, who wordlessly fired a black wave of energy of his own to negate it and didn't even slow down in the process. _Oh, that is just _cheating!__

Urahara tried catching Ichigo with Benihime's binding, but Ichigo just used Shunpo to get out of the way. _Fuck! It's like he's _faster_ than _Yoruichi_... which, come to think of it, he might actually be._ Urahara spun around, trying a "Razor, Be—!", but Ichigo slammed him into the ground before he could even finish speaking. Urahara decided to just lay there for a minute while he caught his breath and tried to remember how he got himself into this situation, and whether or not it was his own damned fault.

"You're oh for three, so far," Ichigo said, sitting down next to him. "Perhaps you'd like to trade opponents?"

"This is manifestly unfair," Urahara groaned, actually saying it out loud this time.

"Call it payback," Ichigo said with a shit-eating grin.

"For things I haven't actually done to you," Urahara pointed out grumpily.

Ichigo shrugged. "You would have if you'd had the opportunity; it's close enough."

Urahara snorted, but could not, in good conscience, disagree with his reasoning.

* * *

_This is manifestly unfair,_ Isshin thought as Rukia rained Hadō down on him. _She hasn't even released her Shikai!_

"Getsuga Tenshō!" he cried, swinging his sword to fling the burst of energy up at Rukia. She smirked, making Isshin suddenly very, very afraid.

"Hadō #33," Rukia said calmly before the blast had even cross half the distance between them, and Isshin's thoughts became rather repetitive: _Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap...!_ "Sōkatsui!"

A massive energy blast engulfed Isshin's pathetic-seeming (in comparison) Getsuga Tenshō, and Isshin braced himself for the impact.

"Getsuga Tenshō!"

Isshin blinked; he hadn't said that, had he? Abruptly, a black wave of energy carrying Urahara in front of it collided with Rukia's Kidō, catching the surprised Shinigami in a massive explosion of energy.

"Oh, shit!" Ichigo and Rukia said in unison, rushing forward to make sure Urahara was okay.

"That was completely my fault," Ichigo said morosely, as he observed the amount of blood the shopkeeper's now-tattered clothes were covered in. "First in that I got surprised enough to call out its name when that's massive overkill, and second in that I wasn't paying enough attention to which direction it would send him flying in."

Rukia was already holding her glowing green palms over Urahara's injuries as she used her Kaidō to heal him. "Eh, I've healed worse."

"This... is..." Urahara coughed, spitting out even more blood, " _manifestly_ unfair."

"I am honestly sorry about that," Ichigo said. "I think we should call that a day; for you two, at least."

Isshin coughed. "Well, you inadvertently saved me from your girlfriend's—" Ichigo and Rukia rolled their eyes simultaneously "—ridiculously powerful Hadō, so I personally can't find it within myself to mind this incident all that much."

"Your concern for my wellbeing is touching," Urahara deadpanned.

* * *

"This," Urahara said feelingly while lying on his back as he and Isshin watched Rukia release her Bankai against Ichigo, "is—"

"— _manifestly unfair_ , I know." Isshin chuckled. "You said that already."

"Multiple times," Urahara agreed. "Time travel is cheating. I want to punch whatever asshole sent them back."

Isshin coughed. "You do realize it was probably you, right?"

"My sentiment stands: future-me is an asshole."

They watched in silence as Ichigo fired some sort of cross-shaped variant of Getsuga Tenshō at Rukia, who effortlessly deflected it with the ease of long familiarity ( _Did she just... _freeze_ his attack? In midair?_ ), and responded with what _looked_ like Hadō #88, Hiryū Gekizoku Shinten Raihō (they couldn't actually hear anything the dueling time-travelers said over the noise their attacks were making). Isshin let out a low whistle. "She's good."

Urahara snorted. "They're both good; they apparently got into a lot of training and/or combat before going back in time. I fully admit that I'm rusty and you only just got your powers back, but I highly doubt even the Captain-Commander could take either one of them one-on-one; with both of them together? Aizen doesn't stand a chance."

"I want to believe you're right," Isshin said. "I _really_ want to believe that you're right."

Then his son placed his swords together to release his own Bankai and Isshin found he no longer possessed the capacity for speech.

* * *

"All right," Rukia said once they'd sealed their Zanpakutō once more and rejoined Isshin and Urahara. "That was fun."

"After four days of keeping my reiatsu as carefully-suppressed as possible," Ichigo said as he sat down with a sigh, "that felt fantastic."

"I'm so glad you enjoyed yourselves," Urahara chipped in sarcastically, absently rubbing his chest, which was still sore.

Isshin smirked. "I had fun, too."

"Yes, well, you Kurosakis and Shibas and _apparently_ Kuchikis are clearly masochists of some variety."

"I don't think Kisuke had fun," Ichigo said gravely to Rukia.

"Clearly," she replied equally as gravely, "we must do something to alleviate this failure."

"Oh no," Urahara just barely had time to moan before Ichigo pinned his limbs and Rukia scribbled a mustache on his face. "How is it possible that you two have less emotional maturity than _me?_ I am not usually the mature one!"

"You have only yourself to blame," Rukia intoned solemnly.

* * *

"So," Rukia said after they'd returned to their usual windowsill perch. "I have a question for you."

They had added a second, smaller set of privacy barriers around them so that even if Urahara were to slip another bug into Ichigo's bedroom, he still wouldn't be able to listen in to this particular conversation. Ichigo shrugged. "Fire away."

"Why did you decide you wanted to go back in time?"

Ichigo's subconscious immediately shied away from anything resembling a completely-honest answer to that question. "Funerals make me reflect on my failures," he said instead. "I got drunk—" _No more than mildly tipsy, actually_ "—and mopey and talked myself into it." _Literally._ "What about you?"

Rukia nodded. "Sounds about right. Especially the first couple parts; I was sitting next to Shunsui." She gave an exaggerated shudder, and Ichigo chuckled.

_Oh for fuck's sake._ Zangetsu sounded aggravated. _Get over yourselves and jump each other already._

_Go fuck yourself,_ Ichigo replied automatically, breathing in the late-spring air with a contented sigh. "I'm going to try to get some sleep."

Rukia raised an eyebrow at him. "The sun will be up in a couple hours," she pointed out.

"Yeah, and I didn't really get any sleep last night, either. Some is better than none, in this case."

Rukia shrugged, and turned her head back to stare at the night sky. "All right; good night, Ichigo."

"Good night, Rukia," he said, and unconsciousness took him the moment his head hit the pillow.


	6. Reflections and Examinations, First Dance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, I said not to expect a consistent update schedule, didn't I?
> 
> I had most of this chapter finished days ago, but a cold has been kicking my ass lately and I only just now finished it off, so it'll probably be another few days (at least) before you get chapter 7.

"Wow, you look tired," Tatsuki observed as Ichigo walked past her desk.

Ichigo grunted in acknowledgment before slumping into his chair. "Didn't get much sleep the past couple nights."

Uryuu was absent again; that was worrying. If he was mad enough about their previous encounter, he might actively avoid both Ichigo and Rukia, making it difficult for them to keep an eye out for potential threats. _I hope he doesn't transfer to another school entirely..._

"Um, Kurosaki-kun?" Orihime interrupted his thoughts unexpectedly, and Ichigo barely avoided visibly tensing. "Is something going on between you and Ishida-kun?"

Ichigo tried his best to shrug nonchalantly. "I have no idea what he's up to."

"Give him a couple days," Rukia whispered from her own desk. "If he's still not coming to school after that, we can worry about what to do about it then."

* * *

"Hey Chad," Ichigo called out as lunch began, "come eat with us."

Chad nodded and followed them in silence.

"So," Rukia spoke up when it seemed clear that Chad wasn't going to initiate conversation. "Did you keep the parakeet?"

"I didn't think we should talk about that in public," Chad replied in a low voice.

"Why?" Ichigo replied, scarfing down a rice ball. "It's just a bird."

Chad blinked at Ichigo and Rukia snorted. "Don't worry about it, Chad; nobody else could hear us right now, even if I shouted that _KEIGO IS A MASSIVE IDIOT_ at the top of my lungs."

Chad stiffened and turned his head to look at the named student, who didn't even look up from some piece of paper Mizuiro was showing him. Then he looked at Rukia. "Is this magic?"

"Yes," she replied as she took a bite out of her own lunch. "No one can hear us, and they're being subtly discouraged from even paying any attention to us."

"So... are you some sort of exorcist?" Chad asked, and Ichigo smiled at the reasonable-but-still-wrong conclusion.

"'Some sort of exorcist', huh?" Rukia repeated with a smirk. "Well, in the sense that I help spirits to move on... I suppose I am."

Ichigo was trying very hard not to giggle now. "Just so long as you don't adopt an annoying laugh and start hosting your own exorcism TV show." Rukia just rolled her eyes at that.

"Why did you come to this school?" was Chad's next question.

"I had some things that I needed to take care of," Rukia said vaguely. "I'll be leaving in a couple weeks."

Chad turned to Ichigo. "So how do you two know each other?"

Rukia looked at Ichigo expectantly, quite happy to pass this question off to him. Ichigo avoided glaring at her while Chad was watching, and considered how to respond. "She saved my life, then I saved hers, and now we're sort of stuck with each other."

"No matter how many times this idiot tries to get himself killed again," Rukia affirmed, nodding.

"...You have a very strange relationship."

Ichigo couldn't help but laugh at that. "Chad, you don't know the half of it."

* * *

"Uryuu didn't show up midway through the day again," Ichigo noted on the walk home.

Rukia raised an eyebrow at that. "Were you expecting him to?"

"I was hoping, somewhat."

"I already gave my opinion of what you should do this morning."

"I know, I know; I agree, too. I owe him at least some time to think by himself. I just don't like waiting without doing something."

Rukia smirked. "Shall we torment the old-timers under the shop again tonight?"

"Nah," Ichigo said, trying (and failing) to stifle a yawn. "I'm going to just go straight home and get some proper rest for a change. We can go back to the torment tomorrow night."

* * *

"And you're _sure_ your son isn't going to interrupt by spontaneously blowing me up again?" Urahara asked Isshin as they both lowered their Zanpakutōs and caught their breath.

Isshin snorted. "Why, Urahara, one might think you were getting paranoid."

"What do you mean by ' _getting_ paranoid'?" Urahara replied dryly.

"Well, I've realized that there are no such things as guarantees when my son is involved, but he told me he basically hadn't slept for two nights and requested I not wake him tonight unless it was an emergency... something to do with a parakeet, apparently. So I figure we're probably safe for a couple hours, at least."

"Oh good," Urahara said with a sigh, "a couple of hours. And no guarantee his girlfriend won't show up on her own to wale on us both single-handedly."

Isshin chuckled as they crossed swords once more, each trying to unbalance the other into releasing their Shikai first. Isshin went for a headbutt, but Urahara dodged backwards, raising a finger. "Hadō #4, Byakurai!"

Isshin used Shunpo to avoid the burst of lightning and get behind Urahara, only to get a sandaled foot in his face as Urahara had anticipated the movement. Resigned to the fact that he was apparently the rustier of the two, he dusted himself off and called out, "Burn, Engetsu!"

Urahara smirked as they closed once more.

* * *

"Did you ever figure out why she sleeps in the closet?" Urahara asked the next time they took a break.

"Nope," Isshin sighed, drooping forward in an exaggerated posture of defeat. "I strongly suspect they're just trying to get me to ask, and I don't want to give them the satisfaction."

Urahara coughed. "Is that why you haven't asked me about the Visored yet?"

Isshin snorted and shook his head. "Ichigo didn't make it sound like the situation was urgent, and he seemed a little _too_ happy to dump the explanations on you, so mostly I just want to needle him by making him be present for it anyway."

Then he cleared his throat and continued, "Also, I want either him or Rukia there to make sure you aren't just making shit up."

"So distrusting!" Urahara sighed. "Where oh where did this reputation for deceit come from?"

Isshin's only reply was to send Urahara flying through the nearby rock formation with a flick of his finger.

 _Fair point,_ Urahara thought grumpily as he shook off the rubble.

* * *

Ichigo was dimly aware that something unusual had happened even before he opened his eyes. After he awoke, however, he couldn't quite place the feeling of wrongness; it wasn't until he started to stand up that he finally noticed what was out of place as he tripped and fell.

"Ow! Rukia, why exactly is your soulless gigai lying on my floor?"

A muffled yawn came from the closet, followed by a sleepy "What?"

Ichigo rolled his eyes. "Your gigai. Why is it on my floor?"

Rukia slid the closet door open and yawned again. "Low-level Hollows kept showing up all night; was too tired to leave the gigai in your sisters' room."

Ichigo blinked. "I don't remember any rush of Hollows around this time the first time through."

"Yeah," Rukia said, stifling yet another yawn. "I figured it was probably Aizen throwing stimuli in our direction, but they were way too weak to be a proper attempt at actually _hurting_ us, so I'm not worried yet."

She slid out of the closet and climbed into her gigai, then blinked at the look on Ichigo's face. "Okay, why are _you_ worried?"

"I'm worried because Aizen's doing something different," Ichigo said with a frown. "Everything he does that's different makes it that much harder for us to anticipate him."

"Yeah, well, there was a zero percent chance that he wouldn't behave differently in _some_ fashion when I didn't lose my powers giving them to you, so this is pretty much the least interesting change that could've resulted." Rukia shrugged as she ran her gigai through some basic stretches to help wake herself up. "I mean, throwing a few more extremely-wimpy Hollows at us is like Aizen's equivalent of a light tap on the shoulder; none of them made me actually release my Shikai, even considering the level I'm holding myself back to, so until either that happens or we see something that looks like a rejected science experiment, I'm not terribly worried."

Ichigo sighed. "I suppose you have a point there; I just remember how tricky some of those 'rejected science experiments' could be, and I don't want us getting so overconfident that we fall prey to something unexpected."

"So in other words," Rukia said with a snort, "you're basically concerned about turning into Aizen?"

Ichigo glared back. "That is _not_ what I said."

Rukia shrugged. "All I'm saying is that I've got my eye on you, and if you suddenly show up with a Hōgyoku in your chest and declare that you've transcended the limitations of Shinigami and Hollow, I _will_ give you an ass-kicking the likes of which you've never seen before."

"Well," Ichigo said in a deadpan as he rolled his eyes, "I can see you're certainly treating this situation with the seriousness it deserves."

Although he had to admit, he _had_ felt somewhat better after that declaration, for some reason.

* * *

No Uryuu again. Ichigo decided not to comment on it or Rukia would just remind him that he'd already agreed to wait. He did, however, resolve to himself that he would definitely go to the Ishida household if Uryuu still didn't show up tomorrow.

In the middle of class, Rukia's Denreishinki went off and she excused herself to go to the bathroom. Ichigo hadn't even had time to worry before he felt the presence and then almost-immediate disappearance of a Hollow, and a minute later Rukia returned to the classroom, having been gone for so little total time that (Ichigo noted sourly) people probably wouldn't even think she'd been lying about going to the bathroom.

"Show off," Ichigo muttered.

"Are you saying you _couldn't_ have handled it just as quickly?" Rukia replied with a smirk.

"No, but I didn't have that capability the first time around, so you're just showing off."

"Your logic is as demented as always."

Immediately after saying this, Rukia had the gall to drop the privacy barrier so Ichigo couldn't even respond without attracting the attention of the entire class (or raising his own privacy barrier, which would be so petty she would have automatically won the exchange, and Ichigo would be damned if he would let that happen), so instead he just fumed silently and pretended to be a mature adult... which was doomed to failure, as he was also pretending to be a 15-year-old child.

* * *

"How did you become an exorcist?" Chad asked at lunch.

Rukia very narrowly avoided choking on her food in surprise. "I went to a... special school for training," she finally got out.

"Are these schools common?"

"As far as I know, there's just the one."

As Chad looked down to contemplate this, Rukia shot a pleading look at Ichigo; unfortunately, he had his eyes closed and was hugging his chest tightly in an attempt to avoid audibly laughing (although the shaking of his shoulders give away that he was still doing so silently). _Traitor,_ she thought, scowling.

"Can anyone become an exorcist?" Chad said as he looked up again and Rukia wiped the displeasure off her face before he could see it.

Ichigo's expression, however, had become one of shock. _Did he just sort of... ask about becoming a Shinigami? ...In a very roundabout sort of way?_

 _The qualifiers you put on that question almost answer it by themselves,_ Zangetsu noted wryly.

"You kind of have to be born into it," Rukia said, choosing her words carefully. "It's not safe for ordinary humans, and there are a number of, uh, hard-to-satisfy criteria involved." _Like 'being dead', usually._

"Are you interested in, er, helping spirits, Chad?" Ichigo asked.

Chad shrugged and looked out over the town visible past the roof's railing. "I didn't like the feeling of being unable to help Shibata. He tried to warn me that I was in danger by being around him, but nothing happened, even though I was nearly caught in a traffic accident." Chad turned back to Rukia. "That's because you were protecting me, wasn't it?"

"Ah, well," Rukia said, blushing and rubbing the back of her neck nervously. _I can't really say, 'Actually, it was Ichigo buying time for me to get there and be seen by anyone who might be monitoring Shinigami in the area, so that it wouldn't be suspicious when the gates of hell suddenly opened up in the middle of town,' but I can't seem to bring myself to take credit, either..._

"She put herself between you and the monster," Ichigo said; "kneed him right in the face before he could lay a hand on you. She's very good at her job."

 _Oh yeah,_ Rukia realized belatedly. _I did actually do that, at the end._

She also found herself blushing slightly harder at the unthinkingly-admiring tone in Ichigo's voice, but tried not to think about that too much.

"You could see it?" Chad asked.

"Yeah; I've been able to see spirits for as long as I can remember."

"Are you an exorcist as well?"

"No," Ichigo said without any hesitation. "I am definitely not an exorcist."

* * *

As Ichigo and Rukia were walking down the hallway after classes were done for the day, Ichigo heard a familiar voice call out "Kurosaki-san!" and he narrowly avoided tripping over his own feet—although he couldn't hide the way his spine briefly went ramrod-straight at the sound, this time.

"Inoue," he said in a deceptively-normal tone of voice as he got his face under control and turned around. "Is there something I can do for you?"

Orihime was fidgeting nervously. "Um, I-I was wondering—" she started, then her eyes flicked over to Rukia and her face turned a bright red and she seemed unable to finish her sentence.

"Why don't you walk with us?" Rukia invited cheerfully.

"Really?" Orihime asked, turning to Rukia with her eyes wide.

Behind Orihime's back, Ichigo made a giant X with his hands and shook his head vigorously, trying to think of some other way he could communicate how bad of an idea he thought this was without actually saying it verbally.

Rukia didn't seem to care, however, because she just motioned for Orihime to follow and said, "Sure!"

Orihime looked between the two of them (Ichigo quickly swung his arms behind his back and smoothed his expression into polite curiosity before she turned her head), then nodded. "A-all right."

"So," Rukia asked once they'd all started moving together, "what were you wondering?"

"Well, there's a... t-there's this math test coming up, and I—" Orihime bowed her head, as though supremely embarrassed to be making this request at all "—I heard that Kurosaki-san was helping you catch up on the schoolwork you missed by transferring in so late, and—"

"We'd be happy to help!" Rukia exclaimed.

Ichigo starting to glare at Rukia, but immediately reverted his expression as Orihime turned to look at him expectantly. "S-sure," he said, "we can just have a three-person study group today instead of a two-person one."

"Oh... oh! Okay then!" Orihime smiled happily and Ichigo felt as though Zaraki had just impaled him in the stomach. _This is going to be physically painful,_ he realized gloomily.

 _You are such a fucking coward sometimes,_ Zangetsu said with a sigh.

* * *

On the way home, an idea occurred to Ichigo which he immediately seized upon as a distraction. "I just remembered I need to do some grocery shopping," he announced.

"We'll join you," Rukia said immediately, as if to cut off any thoughts of escape.

Ichigo winced internally, but he hadn't held out much hope that he'd be able to get away from Orihime for long, not with Rukia apparently doing her dead-level best to force them to spend some time together, so at least it was with a _consistent_ level of awkwardness that Ichigo purchased the ingredients he needed while Orihime explained her latest culinary experiment to Rukia, who appeared to think she was joking for some reason. _I guess she forgot just how bad Orihime used to be when it came to food._

"She seriously intends to eat that," Rukia muttered as the other girl paid for her groceries, "doesn't she?"

"Yup," Ichigo said. "Forget what she used to be like?"

"...Maybe a little," she admitted.

* * *

After they'd resumed walking home, Ichigo spotted Uryuu up ahead, looking very angry. _Shit, shit, shit._ Then Ichigo felt something behind Uryuu as one of his low-impact, wide-area barriers detected something and drew his attention to it, and his panic levels increased accordingly. _Fucking shitting fuck; this could not possibly happen at a worse time._

_Think this is karma for screwing with his head earlier?_

Ichigo ignored Zangetsu and spoke without taking his eyes off of Uryuu. "Rukia, why don't you show Inoue the way while I talk with Ishida?"

Rukia looked like she wanted to object—her own barrier almost certainly would have pointed out the same camera fly Ichigo had just noticed—but couldn't think of a way to say it in front of Orihime, so instead she reluctantly nodded. "Let's let the boys talk this out, Orihime."

Orihime looked concerned, but allowed Rukia to pull her away as Ichigo set down his groceries and ran forward. "What do you want, Uryuu?" he asked as soon as he was close enough that they could converse at a low enough volume that Ichigo was _reasonably_ certain the camera fly wouldn't pick up the audio (although he would make sure not to say anything too revealing regardless).

"I don't want anything from _you_ ," Uryuu said with a sneer, and made as if to follow Rukia.

Ichigo sighed, grabbed Uryuu with both hands before he could move out of range, and pressed his forehead directly up against the young Quincy's own, his quiet voice full of barely-contained venom. "Uryuu, I am going to ask you a question, and I want you to answer it with nothing but the unvarnished truth: _have you released any Hollow bait yet?_ "

Uryuu seemed surprised at the question, but his facial expression resumed its previous state after less than a second. "No, not _yet,_ " he replied in an ominous tone.

 _Holy shit,_ Zangetsu said with far too much glee for Ichigo's comfort. _You actually made him mad enough to want to challenge the resident Shinigami to a Hollow-killing contest almost two months early. I'm honestly impressed._

Ichigo pulled his head back, let go of Uryuu's arms, and nodded. "That's good; if you'd endangered the lives of people I care about just for the sake of your pride and assuaging your useless guilt, I might've been forced to respond with violence."

Uryuu's sneer became a full-blown scowl. "Stop talking as if you know anything about me!" he shouted. "If I thought you were a threat, you wouldn't be able to do anything to stop me from removing that threat... and if you're that concerned about whether people would be safe if Hollow bait _had_ been used, then I guess you aren't confident in Kuchiki-san's ability to defend—"

"Kuchiki Rukia," Ichigo cut him off, "has my _absolute_ confidence. The Hollows that came to investigate the bait wouldn't put the people I care about at risk; _you'd_ be doing that by drawing the attention of the whoever or whatever might want to investigate the investigators."

Uryuu's expression hadn't changed, but Ichigo could tell his mind was racing to consider the possibility. Ichigo sighed. "It's clear we need to have a more in-depth talk, but now is not a good time."

"Why, because that would interfere with your _social life?_ "

Ichigo frowned. "Inoue Orihime asked us for help studying for a math test. She has no idea what Rukia really is, or about the monsters out there that could attack at any moment. Do you want to turn her world upside-down just for the sake of a grudge match?"

Before Uryuu could respond, Ichigo jerked his thumb in the direction Rukia and Orihime had been in when they disappeared around a corner. "She seemed worried about the fact that you'd been absent lately. She wasn't the only one, either."

Ichigo turned around, speaking again before Uryuu could put his thoughts in enough of an order to say something. "As soon as Inoue goes home, I'll be heading over to your house. Please make sure Ryuuken knows I'm coming, as I have information for the both of you."

By the time Uryuu had recovered to the point of speech again, Ichigo was long gone.

* * *

Ichigo had retrieved his groceries and caught up with Rukia and Orihime while they were still a good minute's walk away from his house. "Kurosaki-san?" Orihime sounded unashamedly worried. "Is everything all right?"

"There's nothing to worry about," Ichigo replied. "With luck, you'll see Ishida in class tomorrow."

Rukia gave him a suspicious look, but decided to wait before pressing him for details. "So, Orihime, what concepts in particular were you struggling with?"

As Orihime began talking, Ichigo found thinking about such a banal concept as high school mathematics was actually relaxing in comparison to the rest of his day, and began to think that this study group might not be so bad after all.

Then his dad answered the door, looking between Rukia and Orihime with manic glee, and Ichigo realized that he really ought to know better by this point. "My son," Isshin said dramatically, tears streaming down his face as he gave Ichigo a thumbs-up, "you have truly—oof!"

Ichigo pulled his fist back from punching his father in the stomach and followed up with a kick to send him flying into the far wall. "Stop being weird and leave my friends alone, Goat-Face. Come on, let's get set up at the table."

Orihime was gaping at Ichigo in horror, and Rukia had to assure her that Isshin would be fine ("No, really, they do this all the time...") before she finally followed her classmates, and she still didn't relax until Isshin poked his head through the door, grin fully intact.

Ichigo rolled his eyes, but knew Isshin probably had _actual_ questions, so he should probably deal with him. "Excuse me for a minute."

Once they were alone in the hallway, Ichigo quickly raised a privacy barrier. Isshin immediately spoke up. "All right, so what's really going on?"

"We're really helping her prepare for a math test," Ichigo said with a shrug. "Sometimes high school students do, in fact, do schoolwork."

"Okay," Isshin said, dubiously, "but since I'm pretty sure that if most people asked you for help studying you'd just tell them to bother somebody else, and you weren't friends _before_ you arrived from the future, that tells me—"

"She actually asked Rukia," Ichigo interrupted, sighing. "You're not wrong, though. We did know her, the first time around."

"Were you close?"

Ichigo snorted. "We were married."

Isshin's jaw dropped. Ichigo rolled his eyes. "Oh, don't look at me like that. You know full well that I'm not _actually_ 15; did you think I was a monk or something in the future?"

"That's not—" Isshin took a deep breath, then frowned. "What do you mean you _were_ married?"

"I went back in time, obviously." Ichigo raised a confused eyebrow. "Why?"

"So she didn't...?"

"No, Dad, she didn't die; I didn't travel back in time to save her life, although obviously I don't intend to let her die this time around either. Please stop imagining my old life was like some kind of bad movie." Isshin grimaced at that, but Ichigo pressed on. "I told you before that I didn't want to go into detail about the old timeline, so please stop asking me for those details, okay? Now if you'll excuse me, I have normal high-schooler things to do."

"Ichigo—" Isshin began, but immediately realized he had no words to express what he was actually feeling at the moment; instead, he sighed and nodded.

"After this, I'll be busy taking care of something else, so I won't be participating in training tonight, either." With that, Ichigo dropped the barrier and rejoined his classmates.

* * *

Yuzu gaped at her older brother. Ichigo involuntarily took a step back. "What?"

"Since when could you cook!?" she blurted out, incredulous.

"What are you talking about? Of course I can—" at which point Ichigo remembered that, back when he'd _actually_ been 15, his culinary skills had begun and ended with instant noodles. "I mean, I'm not _completely_ incapable of feeding myself."

Yuzu frowned at him. "I have _never_ seen you bake _anything_ before."

"Yeah, well, if you're just going to get hung up on that fact, I won't let you have any."

She huffed at that, but _did_ stop bothering him, which Ichigo took to meant she was at least curious to see what resulted from this unusual endeavour. With luck, this would result in him being able to bribe her with baked goods in the future, which is something he'd done in the... uh, future. _Damn it._

_You went and twisted your brain into a knot after you said you weren't going to do that, didn't you?_

_Shut up and let me concentrate on my delicious baked goods._

Once the timer was set, Ichigo returned to the table and walked Orihime through the next problem. She seemed almost like she wanted to ask what he was baking, but when she spoke it was only about the math in front of them.

Orihime watched as, seemingly only a few minutes later, the oven timer went off and Ichigo left to attend to the kitchen again. Rukia noticed where her attention was directed, and said softly, "They're probably chocolate chip cookies."

"Huh?" Orihime squeaked, jumping in her chair.

"I said that they're probably chocolate chip cookies," Rukia repeated. "He has a tendency to bake them whenever he wants to calm his nerves."

Orihime was silent for several seconds. "You know him pretty well, huh?"

Rukia shrugged. "I know he can be a real idiot about some things." Then she looked Orihime directly in the eye and her tone was solemn. "I strongly suggest you tell him exactly how you feel, rather than tormenting yourselves with might-have-beens. Lord knows _Ichigo_ seems to be incapable of getting directly to the point unless there's punching involved."

Orihime's eyes went wide and her face became as red as a strawberry, but before she could stammer out a reply to that, Ichigo walked out of the kitchen. "They're cooling off now; should be ready to eat by the time we're done here."

He slid into his chair and, without missing a beat, resumed the explanation he'd been in the middle of when he'd stood up. Orihime gave all of her attention to what he was saying, but her heart couldn't help but beat a little faster as a corner of her mind reflected on Rukia's words.

* * *

 _This cookie is actually pretty good,_ Orihime thought as she and Ichigo approached her apartment building. She had been trying to work up the courage to say something throughout the entire walk, but it hadn't happened yet. Now it was looking like she might be out of time, and she wasn't sure if she was disappointed or grateful at the possibility.

She'd been only half surprised when Rukia had announced she would be going to bed instead of walking with them; Orihime could've sworn she even noticed Rukia winking at her before she left the room, but her awareness had been too distracted by the pounding of her heart to say for sure. Now, in spite of Rukia's advice, Orihime had gone through the entire walk without saying a single word, and it seemed unlikely that Ichigo was going to initiate a conversation at this point.

 _Just get it over with,_ she thought to herself. _Just brace yourself and... and rip it off, like a band-aid._

"I think I love you," she blurted out before she'd even consciously finished deciding whether or not she should, and her cheeks flushed with embarrassment once she realized that she'd actually said that.

 _Wow,_ Ichigo thought. _I think I would actually rather fight Zaraki and Grimmjow simultaneously than have this conversation right now._

Zangetsu had apparently decided to sit this one out, because the only voice Ichigo heard in his thoughts was his own. He sighed, took a deep breath, and said, "I know."

As she spun her head around to stare at him for that response, he continued. "You are a kind, deeply caring, incredibly loyal, and unbelievably good person—" Orihime's eyes were now so wide Ichigo felt like he was about to kick a puppy "—and I wish I could return your feelings in kind; I really do."

As Orihime's expression went from shock to pain, Ichigo put his stubborn determination to good use and kept talking (instead of curling up in a ball and asking the world to leave him alone for a day or two). "I wish I could, but I can't. Maybe, in another life, I could have... but right now I know better, and it would be unfair to you for me to lie to both of us like that."

Ichigo laid his hand on Orihime's shoulder, and she flinched at his touch. He almost took his hand back off at that reaction, but then she lifted her own hand up to cover his and he decided to just let her have that moment. "You deserve somebody who can love you as you love them, and I believe you'll find that person in time. It's just not me. I'm sorry."

Tears began streaming down Orihime's face, and as she let out a choked sob, Ichigo decided it was probably time to leave ( _Great, I made Orihime cry; I'm a real piece of shit_ ). Right before he could turn around, though, she lurched forward and wrapped her arms around him, which was so far from any reaction he'd expected that he was paralyzed for a few seconds, and then he just barely managed to return the hug and perfunctorily pat her on the back.

"Thank you," she said finally, letting him go and stepping back.

That was so completely not what Ichigo had expected her to say that he just blinked for another couple of seconds. "You're thanking me? For what?"

Orihime gave him a sad smile. "For being honest with me."

She was the one who turned around first, as Ichigo stood there wondering if he'd been dropped into an alternate universe (which, he supposed, he technically had). After a few steps, though, she paused and turned her head back to say, "I think you're a better person than you think you are."

 _I don't think you'd feel the same way if you knew the whole story._ "I'll... try to keep that in mind. Good night, Orihime."

Before he'd even gotten out of sight of the apartment building, Rukia landed next to him (not in her gigai; presumably she'd left it in bed) and said, "What the hell was that?"

"I _really_ can't do this right now," Ichigo said, pleadingly.

"Tough shit," Rukia replied, glaring at him. "You made her _cry_ , Ichigo! Why did—?"

He held up a hand and kept walking. "I have to go talk to Uryuu and convince him not to do something stupid, like challenge the resident Shinigami to a hollow-killing contest. If I make it through that alive and conscious, we can talk then."

Rukia kept her glare up undiminished, but finally nodded. "Fine. But I'm going to hold you to that, Ichigo."

With that, she took off again, and Ichigo sighed. _Great; on the plus side, if Uryuu kills me, I won't have to have that conversation._

* * *

Ichigo didn't even have a chance to knock on the door before it had opened and Uryuu was glaring at him. _It's Glare At Ichigo Day and nobody told me, isn't it?_ "I brought you these."

Uryuu blinked in confusion. "You... what?"

Ichigo pressed the plastic container into Uryuu's hands. "I baked some chocolate chip cookies and thought you might like some."

"What are—?" Uryuu started, then he opened the lid and his eyebrows shot up. "You _baked me cookies?_ "

Ichigo snorted. "I baked _myself_ cookies to calm my nerves; you are merely an after-the-fact beneficiary. Aren't you going to invite me in?"

Uryuu tried to resume glaring at Ichigo, but the effect was somewhat undercut by the cookies he was now holding (which, of course, is why Ichigo had brought them in the first place), so he settled for sighing and waving Ichigo inside.

"Where's Ryuuken?" Ichigo asked once the door was closed.

"Aren't you going to tell me what you wanted to talk about?"

"I want to talk about a lot of things, and it would be easier if you were both here so I could tell you both simultaneously. Now, Uryuu, where is your father?"

"Right behind you," came the voice of the elder Ishida from an open doorway. "And wondering why Kurosaki Ichigo was so insistent on speaking with me tonight."

"I think," Ichigo said, "that the best way to begin would be for Uryuu to shoot me."

Both Ishidas blinked in surprise. Uryuu spoke first. "Are you _insane?_ You want me to _what?_ "

Ichigo nodded to him. "Form your bow and shoot me."

" _Why?_ "

"Because seeing is believing, and if my choice is between being shot by you or being shot by Ryuuken, well, I'd much rather be shot by you."

As Uryuu's face revealed that his brain had just suffered a soft crash, Ryuuken spoke up. "And when you're dead, who will answer our questions?"

Ichigo snorted. "Rukia could, but I'm not going to die. Although if I did, it would at least save me from some awkward conversations later. Anyway, Uryuu, just hurry up and shoot me."

Uryuu shot a bewildered look at his father, then shrugged, formed his bow, and released a Heilig Pfeil at Ichigo... who held up his hand, blood vessels glowing as he activated Blut Vene for the first time (in this timeline, at least), and stopped the arrow without his hand getting so much as a scratch.

"Blut Vene," Ichigo said out loud to confirm it. "I am also a Quincy... and since I never managed to learn how to manipulate reishi to form a weapon, this was the easiest way to demonstrate it."

"Okay," Ryuuken said, stepping out from the doorway with a frown on his face. "You have my attention."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed this chapter, which I think takes the title of "longest chapter" from chapter 4 (and it was almost even longer; I decided some conversations made more temporal sense to have later, in chapter 7). Whether you did or didn't, don't forget to leave a comment on your way out!


	7. Reflections and Examinations, Second Dance

"No Ichigo again tonight?" Urahara sounded surprised. "Not that I mind _not_ getting beat all to hell in retaliation for something a different version of myself did, but what could possibly be so important?"

"He didn't give me any details," Isshin replied with a shrug. "Just that he had to take care of 'something else'." Then he hesitated a moment, before adding, "He used to be married."

"Oh?" Urahara raised an eyebrow and smirked. "Does that mean I won the bet?"

"Not to Rukia," Isshin said, shaking his head.

"Oh." Urahara blinked. "I wasn't expecting that."

"His reaction..." Isshin trailed off, trying to corral his thoughts on the matter. "He seemed way too blasé about leaving their life behind. If Masaki were still alive and someone wanted to send me back in time without her, I'd've kicked their teeth in for making the suggestion."

"You think he's repressing his emotions so they don't overwhelm him?"

"I think he doesn't _have_ those emotions for this girl."

Urahara's eyebrow went back up. "You met her?"

Isshin snorted. "She's a classmate and they were helping her _study for a math test_ , of all things. I think..." He hesitated for a few seconds, then sighed. "I don't know _what_ to think."

One thing was for sure, though: his son was probably more screwed up than anybody knew.

* * *

"That's not possible," were the first words out of Uryuu's mouth since Ichigo had started talking.

"Having done it," Ichigo replied, "I beg to differ."

" _Time travel_ by way of _merging with your past soul?_ It's the most ridiculous idea I've ever—"

With yet another roll of his eyes, Ichigo stepped out of his body and Uryuu's brain came to a screeching halt as he saw the unamused look on the man— _Shinigami_ —standing where the teenager had been standing just a moment ago, arms crossed and folded into his Shihakushō. "Shall we introduce ourselves again? Hi, I'm Kurosaki Ichigo. I'm a human-turned-Shinigami with Hollow and Quincy powers who travelled back in time to just under a week ago. You're Ishida Uryuu, also a Quincy, son of Ishida Ryuuken, also a Quincy, whose father was Ishida Souken, who was also a Quincy. You were trained by your grandfather until his death at the hands of a Hollow for which you blame the Shinigami, for taking too long to get there, and yourself, for not fighting with him even though—had you tried—you almost certainly would've just gotten yourself killed as well. Point of interest, the Shinigami were delayed because Kurotsuchi Mayuri, who is both the Captain of the 12th Division of the Gotei 13 and the head of the Shinigami Research and Development Institute, wanted to study his soul."

Uryuu didn't look like he would be able to speak again for a while ( _Whoops; guess I hadn't quite given up on screwing with his head after all_ ), so Ichigo turned to Ryuuken. "So, Uncle, how many questions do you have?"

Ryuuken flinched. "Many, but I think I need time to process everything before I can figure out what they actually are."

" _'Uncle'?_ " Uryuu managed to squeak out in a strangled tone. _Huh, I suppose one shock too many rebooted his speech center._

"I didn't mention that?" Ichigo said with a frown. "I got my Quincy powers from my mother, Kurosaki Masaki, who was taken in by your grandparents as a girl. Actually, their plan was for her to marry your dad, before she got injured saving my dad from one of Aizen's experimental Hollows and then he gave up his Shinigami powers to suppress her Hollowfication. Incidentally, I got my Hollow powers from my mother, too. We're basically cousins, Uryuu! Isn't that wonderful?"

The growing look of combined horror and disgust on Uryuu's face made for quite the definitive answer to that question.

* * *

Isshin was so surprised to hear his cell phone ringing in his discarded gigai's pocket that he completely failed to block or evade Urahara's next strike... although fortunately, Urahara was so surprised himself that his swing missed completely. "I'm amazed you even get signal down here."

"Me too," Isshin admitted. "Who could be calling at this hour?"

He quickly slipped back into his gigai and answered the phone.

"I couldn't help but notice," Ryuuken said without preamble, "that you failed to give me any kind of warning before your son stopped by to completely upend me and my son's lives."

"Oh, is _that_ where he went?" Isshin said, nodding to himself. "That makes sense, I guess."

"You didn't even—?" Ryuuken sighed, but didn't sound all that surprised. "You really are a terrible parent, Kurosaki."

"I'm hurt. Really, truly hurt. Is he still there?"

"Yes...?" Ryuuken's tone was wary.

"Tell him I ate the rest of his cookies."

"No you didn't," Ichigo's voice came over the phone.

Isshin was very confused for a moment. "...Are you using speakerphone?"

"Of course not," Ichigo said so dryly that Isshin imagined he could hear the eyeballs rolling. "He handed over the phone as soon as he suspected he might be about to play messenger."

Isshin sighed. "Coward."

"Did you have anything you _actually_ wanted to tell me, or should I hand the phone back?"

"Nah, you can go ahead."

There was a brief pause before Isshin heard Ryuuken's voice again. "Is your son...?" he began, but trailed off without finishing. Isshin knew the question he'd been unable to make himself actually ask, though: _'Is your son completely fucked in the head, or is there a slim chance we'll make it through this all alive?'_

"Hell if I know," Isshin said.

"Right; I don't know why I thought you might possibly be helpful."

"You should try training with him."

This time it was Ryuuken's turn to snort. "I think I'll pass; you sound a little too excited by the possibility of me getting my ass kicked."

" _Coward._ "

"Good night, Kurosaki."

Isshin smirked as he put the phone away and got out of his gigai again. Urahara was looking at him questioningly, but said nothing. "Ichigo's at Ishida's place. Guess we really don't have to worry about him crashing our training—"

Suddenly, a blur knocked Isshin and Urahara to the ground; the former tried to stand up again only to realize somebody seemed to be standing on his head.

"You two," Rukia said with a huff, one foot planted on the back of each face-down Shinigami's head, "seem to have gotten complacent again when we left you alone for a night. Just because Ichigo isn't here doesn't mean you can't both get your asses kicked!"

"We know that," Urahara muttered gloomily into the ground. "We were just really, _really_ hoping."

* * *

"Ryuuken," Ichigo said quietly after Uryuu had gone to bed. "I need something of your father's."

The older Ishida gave Ichigo a searching look, but the bright-haired... not-really-a-teenager (but his body—which he had returned to—still looked like one, so that's what Ryuuken kept wanting to think of him as) just stared back evenly. "Why?"

"Explaining why I need it could be potentially dangerous," Ichigo said instead of answering.

Neither he nor Rukia had uttered a single word about Yhwach or the Wandenreich, even from within their privacy barriers; they hadn't even had to say one word to each other to tell themselves _not_ to say anything about them. Without knowing exactly how the Wandenreich gathered their intelligence (whether it was all obtained via The Almighty a thousand years ago or whether they had some way of observing Soul Society, Hueco Mundo, and/or the Human World directly from Schatten Bereich somehow), they couldn't risk potentially giving away any information that they knew what was coming; even talking to Ryuuken, even tangentially, about the portal Souken had used to escape was a risk, but Ichigo could hardly just sit back and wait for the Wandenreich to invade again before doing _something_ about them, so it was a risk he'd have to take.

"Why would it be dangerous?" Ryuuken asked.

Ichigo winced. "Even explaining why it would be dangerous could be potentially dangerous."

Ryuuken's eyes narrowed. "To _whom_ would it be dangerous?"

The corner of Ichigo's mouth twitched as it wanted to curl upwards into a bemused smirk at the way both father and son had asked such similar questions in response to Ichigo's warnings about dangerous knowledge. "Everyone; in particular danger, anyone close to me for any reason, including you and your son. Please, if anyone else, even—no, _especially_ Rukia asks you about it, you must feign ignorance." _If he tells her I took it, she might just try to steal it in an attempt to keep me out of harm's way._

Zangetsu snorted inside his mind. _Isn't that exactly what you're doing to her?_

_How about you shut up?_

Ryuuken stared at Ichigo for a long time before he finally spoke. "Very well, but I want a guarantee from you."

Ichigo nodded. "I have no intention of allowing Uryuu to get involved in the fighting. I promise to do everything in my power to make sure no harm comes to him."

_How gracious of you to not request the assistance of the inexperienced child currently incapable of taking on even a Gillian without assistance._ Zangetsu sounded amused. _Truly, you are sacrificing a great deal of combat effectiveness for the sake of an overprotective father._

_You say that like I wouldn't have made exactly the same promise if Uryuu had come back in time with us._

_Yeah, but in that case you'd be making it knowing full well that 'everything in your power' would be 'fuck all' and if you tried to stop him anyway, he'd shoot you in the head._

_...What's your point?_

The scowl on Ryuuken's face told Ichigo that he _wanted_ to be able to tell the younger man that he had presumed wrong about what guarantee he was going to ask for, but couldn't, since Ichigo had naturally guessed exactly right. Finally, Ryuuken sighed. "I'm not going to thank you for _not_ putting him in danger, I hope you realize."

"I wouldn't have it any other way, Uncle Ryuuken."

The scowl immediately returned with a vengeance. "And _stop calling me that._ "

* * *

Rukia effortlessly dove through the gap between Engetsu and Benihime as she swung Sode no Shirayuki in a wide arc to hit both those Zanpakutōs' wielders, carefully restraining her reiatsu so that they were merely sent flying rather than being bisected. "Come on, you guys; you'll never get me to release my Shikai like this."

Urahara and Isshin shot her near-identical glares as they picked themselves back up off the ground. There'd been no hesitation before they teamed up to try to take on the time-traveler together, but even with her facing two opponents simultaneously, she had been kicking them both up one side and down the other of the spacious training room.

"Hadō #32," Urahara said, holding Benihime up horizontally in front of himself. "Ōkasen!"

A flat wave of yellow fire shot out from the length of Benihime, but Rukia didn't look concerned. "Bakudō #81," she said and Urahara barely avoided scowling. "Dankū."

As his Ōkasen spent itself uselessly against the giant magical wall that had sprung up in front of Rukia, Urahara reflected on how unfair it was that she appeared to have trained under a Kidō master—if not _multiple_ Kidō masters—and he was at least 90% certain that at least part of her training had been provided by himself. So she could not only counter his spells with ludicrous ease, but she could also—

"Hadō #73," she continued, drawing in energy, and Urahara decided that it was time to be somewhere else as quickly as possible.

Fortunately, Isshin had finally gotten close enough to try attacking again. "Getsuga Tenshō!" he suddenly shouted from right behind Rukia.

If Rukia was surprised at his approach, she gave no sign of it as she spun around, thrust both palms forward, and replied, "Sōren Sōkatsui!"

The two blasts met at point-blank range, and although Isshin had been training hard every night to try to start getting back into fighting form, two-and-a-half nights was still far from able to match his opponent, and the explosive confrontation was decidedly not in favour of the Getsuga Tenshō.

However, Isshin had not acted alone. "Hadō #91," Urahara started shouting the moment after Isshin moved, "Senjū Kōten Taihō!"

The pink energy spears of the high-level spell smashed through Rukia's Bakudō and joined the explosion as they slammed into Rukia's back.

Or seemed to, anyway. Rukia's Zanpakutō was suddenly knocking Benihime out of his hands and she bodily slammed him into the ground face-first. "I can't believe you fell for _Utsusemi_ , of all things," she said, sitting on him in a relaxed-looking pose, her legs crossed. "How long _has_ it been since you and Yoruichi had a proper spar?"

Urahara coughed and spat out dirt. "Too long, clearly. I don't suppose your future knowledge includes when she's planning on stopping by next?"

Rukia sighed and shook her head. "As far as I'm aware, the next time she would've stopped by was for an event that shouldn't happen anymore." _I certainly don't _intend_ to stick around long enough for a team to be sent out to capture me again, anyway._ "Of the two of us, _you're_ more likely to know when we'll see her next."

Urahara snorted and let his head fall onto the ground again. "Isshin, shouldn't you have tried to hit her while she's distracted by now?"

"Nah," came Isshin's strained voice from where Rukia's Sōren Sōkatsui had left him and he was still laying. "I think I'll just catch my breath over here while you two play for a while."

Rukia quickly used Shunpo to knee Isshin in the stomach and return to her position sitting on Urahara's back. Isshin groaned in pain. "Or not."

Urahara managed to stop himself from laughing; he was quite certain he could guess how Rukia would react to _that_. He did, however, make a perfunctory attempt to dislodge the Shinigami from his back with a spinning kick maneuver. He was not terribly surprised that it failed; he _was_ , however, surprised that it failed because Rukia had stood up and was looking in Isshin's direction.

"Hey," Isshin protested weakly as his son sat on him as Rukia had been doing to Urahara a moment beforehand. "I thought you didn't have time for training tonight."

"He doesn't," Rukia said pointedly, eyes narrowing. "We have something we need to discuss."

Urahara noted with interest, as he retrieved Benihime, the way Ichigo flinched at that. "I don't even get a few minutes to play before we have that talk?" Ichigo said in a tone that wasn't _quite_ whining.

"No," came Rukia's blunt reply, and then she was dragging him towards the exit.

Urahara sighed with relief. "Saved by the awkward conversation, I guess."

"Praise be to the awkward conversation," Isshin agreed as he let his head fall back to the ground with a thump.

* * *

"Okay," Rukia said once they were back in Ichigo's bedroom and sealed within a double-layer of privacy barriers. "What the hell is going on with you and Orihime?"

Ichigo groaned. "What were you expecting would happen, Rukia? That you'd push her into confessing her feelings and then we'd, what, get married again? She's _fifteen_."

Rukia blinked in surprise. "And you're not even thirty. What's your point?"

"That _is_ my point!" Ichigo shouted back angrily. "I know Shinigami consider us both to be effectively children, but humans don't see it that way. At all."

"I don't—" Rukia started, then bit her lip as she marshalled her thoughts more carefully. "It's been a long time since I thought of you as a child; fighting a couple wars with someone has that effect. However, you're not wrong, either: I forgot that you both grew up _during_ that process, and she hasn't gone through that yet." She bowed her head and continued, "I am sorry about that."

Ichigo let out a long sigh before he spoke again. "Before—the first time around, I mean—I didn't really..." he trailed off, reordered his thoughts, then started again. "I hadn't had a lot of experience when it came to dating. I felt... _something_ for Orihime, sure. I thought it was love, at the time. That thought certainly lasted all the way through the process of getting married and living together for _years_. It took a long time before I realized that her feelings and mine were in completely different categories."

Rukia stared at Ichigo, unused to this outpouring of emotional honesty, and made sure she kept her mouth firmly shut. Their usual level of friendly hostility would not be appropriate in this situation, and she wanted to make absolutely certain that a quip wouldn't slip out unthinkingly.

"I had no idea how to tell her; it would've broken her heart. So I just... didn't. I made sure to smile at the right times and say the right things and after years of practice I either got good enough at faking that she didn't notice something was wrong, or didn't let slip any sign that she'd noticed." Ichigo was staring fixedly at his feet by this point, and he coughed nervously. "About a month ago, she started dropping hints about wanting kids again. I... I really didn't know what to do about that."

Left unspoken, but realized almost immediately by Rukia, was that it had probably contributed significantly to his decision to go back in time. "I had no idea," she finally said. "I knew you guys had an argument because you weren't sure about having kids yet, a few years back, but I never got the details. I certainly didn't know she'd brought the topic up again recently."

"It's just—" Ichigo started, then immediately stopped again, staring out the window. After a few seconds, he finally settled on what he wanted to say. "She deserves somebody who can return those feelings in kind, and if I can make sure that clusterfuck never happened in the first place, then that's at least one good thing that will have resulted from travelling back in time."

"All right," she said softly. "You should get some rest; you can fill me in on what happened with Uryuu in the morning."

Ichigo nodded. "Good night, Rukia."

As Ichigo collapsed onto his bed and Rukia laid down in the closet, she couldn't help but wonder, in a tiny corner of her mind, if she hadn't inadvertently been telling the truth when she'd told Ichigo, two nights ago, that they'd gone back in time for the same reasons.

* * *

Neither Ichigo nor Rukia were terribly surprised to see Uryuu sitting at his desk again the next morning. Orihime had seemed slightly startled, but then had nodded to herself in a knowing fashion, prompting a confused Tatsuki to ask what she was nodding at. Ichigo tuned out their antics as he considered the current status of Karakura Town.

Virtually nothing had gone according to his original plan (vague and ill-formed though it may have been); first Rukia had gone back in time herself to throw everything out of alignment, then Urahara and his dad had found out about the time-travelling, and now the Ishidas. On the plus side, that was a not-inconsiderable number of assets that meant he was far less worried about heading to Soul Society with Rukia. On the minus side, the more people that knew, the greater the probability of Aizen catching wind of _something_ —just the _idea_ that somebody might have travelled back in time could potentially cause him to do something drastic.

Still, there was very little he could do about Aizen as long as he was in the Human World, so he just had to wait a few weeks until Rukia's mission came to its scheduled end. If things had gone more like they had originally, it would've been a mostly-uneventful few weeks... but the recent uptick in Hollows suggested pretty loudly that Aizen didn't like that Ichigo didn't seem to have awakened his Shinigami powers yet. Ichigo just hoped he wasn't too suspicious of Rukia's efficiency in dispatching them; she'd been carefully restraining herself, but she could hardly forget all her training and combat experience since she'd been through these events originally, so anyone who paid too much attention to her fighting might notice that she wasn't fighting the same way she had before she'd left Soul Society.

Aizen had definitely had camera flies present during some of her fights (which they had scrupulously left in place, because nothing would be more suspicious than every camera fly that tried to watch Rukia suffering a spontaneous failure), so if he cared to perform that analysis, he would be able to; the possibility had been causing Ichigo some worry ever since the idea occurred to him.

"What are you staring at?" Rukia asked, and he blinked in confusion until he realized his eyes had focused on her as he'd been thinking.

"Nothing," he replied honestly. "I was just thinking about what could go wrong over the next few weeks."

"Pretty much anything," she said with a snort. "It's not like we have any past experience with how Aizen would react to you not stealing my powers."

"Yeah," Ichigo agreed; "that's exactly what I was worrying about."

* * *

Uryuu walked up to him the moment lunch began. "I want to use one of my questions."

Ichigo snorted. "You can forget about that 'three questions' stuff, you know."

"Are you saying you've decided to renege on your—?" Uryuu began angrily before Ichigo could hold up his hands placatingly.

"I _meant_ that there's no reason for the limit anymore. Just ask whatever you want to ask."

Uryuu seemed briefly thrown by this, but quickly recovered ( _He's had plenty of practice recovering from surprises recently, I suppose..._ ). "How long has it been since you, uh..."

"Experienced these events the first time around, before I went back in time?" Ichigo guessed.

The panicked look on Uryuu's face as he quickly looked around to see if anybody heard that made Ichigo burst out laughing. "Nobody else can hear us; I put up a privacy barrier when you walked up. You didn't feel it?"

"I was focusing on what I wanted to say," Uryuu insisted, although Ichigo couldn't help but notice a slight blush he attempted to hide by pushing up his glasses. "Anyway, how far from the future _did_ you come?"

Ichigo sighed at that and rubbed the back of his neck as he considered his answer. "We haven't told anyone else that, you know."

"I suspected by the way you pointedly avoided offering that information up last night, but it's clearly been years, judging by your appearance outside your body." Uryuu grimaced as something occurred to him. "Assuming you age normally, anyway."

"As far as I know, I do... although that's not saying much. Still, I'm not really comfortable talking about the original timeline—"

"I'm not asking you what _happened_ ," Uryuu interrupted with an aggravated sigh, "I'm asking _how long it took_. Surely _that_ knowledge wouldn't be dangerous?"

Ichigo managed to turn his giggle into a cough. "I didn't said it would be _dangerous_ for me to talk about it—I said it made me uncomfortable. I guess I appreciate the vote of confidence that you automatically assume anything I don't want to talk about is for your own good, though."

_Now _there's_ a familiar glare,_ Zangetsu said with a fond sigh.

"Still," Ichigo continued, pretending he hadn't seen the death glare of the boy in front of him by virtue of taking a sudden interest in the classroom ceiling, "I suppose I could give you an upper bound and tell you that I'm below the age of thirty."

Uryuu snorted. "I guess I should've just asked Rukia."

Then he blinked in surprise as Ichigo doubled over in silent laughter. "What's so funny?"

"Oh, nothing!" Ichigo replied cheerfully, instantly straightening up. "I would _love_ to see her reaction."

Uryuu momentarily paled, then decided that perhaps he should quit while he was still ahead... and still _had_ a head. _Anything the prospect of which makes Kurosaki Ichigo that gleeful cannot possibly be a good thing._

* * *

"Have you noticed that Ichigo never hangs out with us anymore?" Keigo asked Mizuiro.

The latter boy shrugged. "He didn't hang out with us all that often anyway."

"Yeah, but he keeps hanging out with that new transfer student—without even _attempting_ to introduce her to us—"

"I can't imagine why Ichigo wouldn't want to introduce Kuchiki-san to you," Mizuiro deadpanned.

"—and he suddenly started talking to that geek at the top of the class! To top it all off, it feels like he's never around anymore."

Mizuiro raised an eyebrow and pointed at Ichigo's desk, where he had just been talking with Uryuu. "He's right there."

"He is? I mean, that's my point!" Keigo said, as though this made perfect sense. "Even when he's around, I keep forgetting he is! It's unnatural."

"Well, Asano-san, I suppose your obliviousness _is_ beyond the comprehension of mere mortals..."

"Why do you have to—!?" he started to reply angrily when an unexpected voice broke in.

"He's been unusually subdued for the past week," Tatsuki said, trying not to get caught staring at Ichigo as he quickly swept the room with his gaze before strolling out the door. "I haven't even seen him raise his voice once in that time."

Keigo was busy gaping at the fact that Tatsuki had voluntarily butted into their conversation, so Mizuiro had to be the one to ask, "You think something happened?"

"I don't know," she said with a shrug. "He's just... not acting like his usual self."

"I think," Orihime suddenly cut in, and Keigo's jaw dropped even farther in surprise, "that Kurosaki-san has a lot on his mind right now."

"What makes you say that?" Tatsuki couldn't keep her own surprise out of her voice.

"Last night, he—" she started, and then she turned bright red, clamped her mouth shut, and shook her head.

Keigo and Mizuiro exchanged identical wide-eyed looks; Tatsuki didn't participate in the exchange only because she was directing hers at Orihime directly. All of their thoughts matched, as well: _'Last night he' did _what?__

"HIME~!" Chizuru suddenly burst forth, tears streaming down her face. "Did you have your heart broken by that—?"

Rukia, who absolutely none of them had noticed walking past, abruptly yawned and stretched, causing Chizuru to run straight into her outstretched left arm from behind and hit the ground with a loud thud. Keigo, Mizuiro, Tatsuki, Orihime, and even Chizuru lying flat on the floor all blinked in surprise.

"Did she just—" Keigo began.

Tatsuki continued the question without pause. "—clothesline Chizuru—"

"—without even looking?" Mizuiro finished, in awe.

"Oops," Rukia said, not sounding the least bit apologetic. "I guess I wasn't paying attention to my surroundings."

As the mysterious transfer student walked out of the classroom without a backwards glance, Tatsuki stared after her and decided that nobody would ever say an unkind word about Rukia in her presence.

"So," Keigo suddenly said, pretending that the past minute hadn't happened, "we'll find out what's going on with Ichigo if it's the last thing we do!"

"You have an astoundingly one-track mind, Asano-san," Mizuiro said with a sigh.

As Keigo angrily whirled around to shout at his friend for calling him by his family name again, Chad—who had been quietly observing the entire scene—wondered whether he should warn Ichigo about their classmates' concerns, or join them in investigating.

* * *

"I think it's ready," Aizen announced.

Tousen seemed dubious. "It doesn't look like much."

Aizen nodded. "Yes; exactly. It should be able to slip in among the stream of low-level Hollows I've been sending to Karakura Town undetected."

_Then we'll see if whoever has been helping Kuchiki Rukia can remain undetected once my newest creation unleashes its _real_ power..._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we have one definite difference between the old timeline and canon: no kids. I decided right from the start that if Ichigo and Rukia had had children, they would never have voluntarily gone back in time (abandoning them in the process), so... they didn't.
> 
> Not saying that it's the only difference, and not saying that it's _not_ the only difference; just noting that it's definitely a difference, and explaining why I changed it.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy... uh, 1st of December, everybody? Finally finished this chapter, so here you go. Hopefully it won't take _quite_ as long for Chapter 9, but we'll see.

"You guys haven't improved much since we started training," Ichigo noted to his father as he landed next to the latter, who was currently trying to unembed his face from the rock formation the former had just slammed him into.

"It's been _three days_ ," Isshin pointed out sourly once he'd done said unembedding.

"So? I originally learned Bankai in two."

_What the hell does 'originally' mean?_ Isshin thought, but all he said was, "You are _not normal_. Besides, I'm not trying to learn Bankai; I'm trying to regain my skill when I haven't had powers for _two decades_."

"Pffft; excuses, excuses." Ichigo gave his father a light shove that sent him flying back several meters before he could recover. "Let's go again."

"I liked it better when you were fighting Urahara..." Isshin muttered as he raised his Zanpakutō once more.

* * *

_I liked it better when we were fighting two-on-one,_ Urahara thought as Rukia grabbed his leg and threw him into the ground. Apparently she had decided that he was in need of a severe handicap, because she hadn't even drawn her Zanpakutō once tonight, while he'd released his Shikai within seconds and was still losing badly. _I cannot _believe_ how out-of-practice I am. Me, a former Captain, getting thrown around like a rag-doll!_

Urahara groaned as he rolled upright and dusted himself off again. _I wonder what rank she was before she went back in time? She's probably at least Vice-Captain level, or... could she have even been promoted to Captain? It's a little hard for me to judge given the current apparently-sad state of my skills, but I'm sure that she's at least Captain-class by _today's_ standards, whether or not she reached that rank in the future._

Rukia scrupulously waited for him to assume a ready stance once more before she rushed forward and kicked him through a new Kisuke-shaped hole in the terrain. "Did you even _try_ to dodge that one?" she called after him.

"...Yes," he replied gloomily, and Rukia winced.

"Well, try harder then."

Urahara sighed as he stood up once more. _It's going to be a _long_ night._

* * *

"So," Isshin said when Ichigo had finally decided it was time for a break, "how many times did we do this, in the future?"

Ichigo tilted his head to the side and turned to shoot his father a bemused look. "Sparring?"

"Yeah; just you and me."

While he thought about it, Ichigo leaned back until he was laying down on the ground and stared up at the distant ceiling of the training room. "Not very often," he said after a few seconds. "I think maybe... three times, total?"

Isshin frowned. "Isn't that a bit low?"

"Well, when I started training, you didn't have your powers back; for a while after that, you were still pretending to be human. By the time you'd finally decided to let me know who you were, we were a little busy fighting to indulge in training spars."

Isshin continued frowning as he pondered the potential events hinted at by his son's maddeningly-sparse descriptions of the original timeline. "When you _started_ training? How did you even awaken your powers in the first—?"

Ichigo rolled his eyes. "Still don't want to go into detail, thank you very much. Maybe when this is all over, I'll tell you the whole story; otherwise, I'd rather focus on the important stuff."

"I don't really think it's _unimportant_..." Isshin grumbled, but Ichigo just snorted and leapt back onto his feet.

"It's unimportant compared to making sure we're prepared for whatever Aizen tries to pull in response to having his plans delayed and/or thwarted, and I still don't feel like you're ready to deal with even Grand Fisher yet. Now get back on your feet and let's go again."

* * *

Urahara rubbed his sore right shoulder as Rukia quietly healed his leg, which had suffered the brunt of her last takedown. It was a fairly minor scratch, in his opinion, but she had insisted; Urahara suspected it had to do with still feeling a little guilty about accidentally blasting him with two simultaneous, stronger-than-intended attacks on that first night of training. Given how much that had hurt, he couldn't quite bring himself to complain, even if he also knew that training would probably be more effective if he had to push through injuries in the process. _I _will_ refuse pointless healing... starting tomorrow._

"So which squad were you Captain of?" he asked in his most nonchalant tone of voice.

Rukia just rolled her eyes as she stood up, his leg back in pristine condition. "I hope you weren't honestly expecting an answer to that question."

Urahara shrugged as he got back to his feet. "Hope springs eternal; I can't possibly claim to understand your reticence regarding the events of your original timeline, but more information usually results in being able to make more accurate plans."

Rukia's eyebrows shot up as she gave a single bark of laughter that Urahara was hard-pressed to describe as anything other than 'furious'. " _You're_ one to talk."

"I cannot help but feel like the two of you are judging me for things that I haven't actually done."

"There may be a little of that; but then, you still haven't told Isshin the whole story about the Visored yet, have you?"

Urahara tipped his hat in acknowledgment of the hit. "In the interests of full disclosure, he wants one of you there to confirm it... but you're not entirely wrong, either. I am somewhat of a—"

"Tight-lipped bastard?" Rukia suggested, her lips quirking into an amused smirk.

"—reticent person by nature," he continued with only a short glare to respond to the interruption, "especially when it comes to my failures."

Rukia nodded thoughtfully, and Urahara felt a sudden surge of dread for no immediately-apparent reason. "I suppose that's understandable," she said.

"How, ah, understanding of you," he replied somewhat lamely.

"On the other hand," she continued, her gaze hardening, and as the feeling of dread intensified, Urahara abruptly realized she was unleashing her reiatsu in his direction, "you _were_ still planning on carrying out your little gigai trick with the Hōgyoku, so you're still far from blameless, even in this timeline."

Urahara winced with the understanding that he probably wouldn't have to say a word for Rukia to stop feeling the need to heal his every cut and scrape from now on. _Me and my big mouth,_ he barely had time to think before she swung for his head once more.

* * *

Ichigo sighed tiredly, not really taking in the view as he sat once more on his bedroom windowsill. Rukia, sitting in her usual mirrored position on the opposite side of the windowsill, raised an inquisitive eyebrow, but didn't feel the need to verbalize a question. Ichigo ran his fingers through his hair and said, in a frustrated tone, "They keep asking."

Rukia shrugged. "They're hardly going to just _stop_ being curious about the way things went the first time through."

"I know; I just still don't particularly feel like talking about it, and given how annoyed I am after just a few days, I get the impression that the questioning is going to drive me crazy well before we head to Soul Society."

She tapped her chin and narrowed her eyes in an exaggerated thinking pose. "I suppose you could always just kill them both; _that'd_ stop them from asking questions."

Ichigo shot her an eloquent glare. Rukia just smiled beatifically in response.

* * *

"Excuse me," Rukia said as her Denreishinki went off in class, "but I have to use the bathroom."

Ichigo could've sworn he saw Chad's eyebrow raise for a split second, but when he turned to get a better look, the massive boy's face was as impenetrable as ever. Uryuu was too disciplined (even with the recent upset of his worldview) to show even a hint that anything was out of the ordinary, but Ichigo's careful eye noted a very slight twitch in his hands at the exact moment the Denreishinki started beeping.

The teacher hadn't even started to reply when Rukia started moving towards the door, but she let her go with a shrugged, "Whatever; I'm sure it'll be fine." _Was she always this laid back whenever I ran out of class unexpectedly? Must've been; I can't recall ever getting in trouble for it._

Beyond that slight observation, Ichigo paid little attention; after all, this was starting to become downright routine. A tiny part of his brain (which, if he ever put into explicit words, Zangetsu would no doubt agree with) warned against getting complacent with Aizen involved, but his conscious mind waved this off as not worth worrying about so soon; after all, Aizen was more likely to escalate in stages until it became inescapably obvious that anything he sent into Karakura Town would not be coming back. In his considered opinion, despite his earlier worries about Aizen's different behavior, he felt they probably wouldn't need to _really_ worry until Aizen sent whatever these cannon-fodder Hollows were killing time to prepare.

Ichigo nodded to himself when he felt the Hollow's arrival; more of the same, nothing to worry about. Rukia will take it down in no time... yup, there it went. See, subconscious? Nothing to worry about.

Then, a few seconds later, another Hollow arrived.

Ichigo stood up so quickly, his knees slamming into his desk so loudly, that the entire class (well, the entirety of the class still present, anyway) turned to stare at him... but he barely registered the sensation in his shins, and ignored his classmates entirely.

This Hollow felt _familiar_.

Not in the sense that it was one he'd met before, but Ichigo nonetheless _knew_ , even though he found himself unable to explain why, that the amount of reiatsu it was giving off was a lie. Every fiber of his being seemed to be shouting at him that something about this was _horribly wrong_ ; that this was exactly what Aizen had been preparing, and the time to start worrying was now. There was also a sudden moment of fear as he remembered the story of another of Aizen's creations: a Hollow that could destroy the Zanpakutō of a Shinigami with a touch, and used this to successfully take on a much stronger opponent than it would otherwise be capable of fighting.

_So, I'm just going to guess that this's freaking you out as much as it is me,_ came Zangetsu's mental voice.

Ichigo didn't even bother responding; he just bolted for the door, barely remembering to shout something about needing to use the bathroom as he frantically searched his mental map of the school for a safe place to stash his body.

_Hold on, Rukia..._

* * *

"What the hell?" Rukia blinked in confusion at the second Hollow that had arrived almost immediately after the first finished dissolving. It didn't look like much; it seemed like nothing so much as an oversized cockroach with a giant hole through its... thorax? Oh, and a Hollow mask, of course.

Its appearance and reiatsu levels were in keeping with the seemingly-endless string of low-level Hollows she'd been dispatching for the past few days, but every combat instinct she had warned her that nothing about it was as it seemed; it reminded her uncomfortably of fighting the likes of Metastacia and Aaroneiro. _Whatever this is, I'm confident in my ability to beat it; I'm less confident of my ability to do that without giving away far more than I want to about my capabilities._

Shaking off her concerns, Rukia readied her Zanpakutō and made a Shunpo-assisted strike against the Hollow's mask; it was with some surprise that she found herself gasping for air on the ground, a deep gash running across her sword arm as the intentionally-reduced reiatsu she was putting out proved to be woefully inadequate to the task of defending against the cockroach-Hollow's suddenly-revealed strength.

"Damn," she said mildly as she stood back up. "You're going to make me put actual _effort_ into this, aren't you?"

The Hollow bellowed unintelligibly in response. _What, Aizen couldn't be bothered to make it talk?_ Rukia shrugged and prepared to activate her Shikai. "Have it your way, then. Dan—!"

To the considerably surprise of Rukia, the Hollow, and even Aizen watching the exchange, Rukia vanished in a blur of Shunpo.

* * *

Aizen frowned at the screen showing the empty stretch of street which, until a moment ago, had held Kuchiki Rukia. He waited a moment more for her to reappear and try a surprise attack from a new angle, but nothing happened. "This is... disappointing."

Ichimaru Gin, his smile unchanging the whole time as he stood beside Aizen, shrugged and said, "Looks like yer rogue element decided to get the girl out instead of taking down yer toy."

"Do they really intend to just leave a dangerous Hollow to run amok rather than risk giving me a glimpse of them?"

"Sure looks that way, don't it?"

Aizen closed his eyes and took a deep breath; when he opened his eyes again, he was facing Gin instead of the screen. "Get the reiatsu-concealment cloaks. I think it's time we made another personal visit to Karakura Town."

* * *

Ichigo frowned at Rukia. "You should heal that arm."

Rukia glanced around, noted Ichigo's Shihakushō-covered arms holding her, then looked up at him with a cocked eyebrow. "You have exactly three seconds to put me down."

Ichigo hurriedly set Rukia down and she nodded. "Okay, so why did you pull me out of there?"

"You can't kill it without revealing that you're holding back a significant amount of strength, and I can't kill it without giving away that I'm a Shinigami. We need a known element of sufficient power to kill that Hollow, and there's only one candidate I can think of."

Rukia noticed where Ichigo was staring and sighed. "I wish I didn't agree with you, but I can't really fault your reasoning."

"Now for fucks' sake, do something about your arm while I talk to him about it."

Rukia rolled her eyes, but began using Kaidō as Ichigo hammered a fist against the locked door of the Urahara Shop. "Kisuke, get your lazy ass out of bed; we need your help!"

The door slid open to reveal the dour face of Tessai. "The manager is—"

"—sleeping in because he got the shit kicked out of him last night," Ichigo interrupted. "As per usual. Nonetheless, we need his help, so WAKE THE HELL UP, KISUKE!"

"I assume," Kisuke said with a yawn as he appeared behind Tessai, "that this has something to do with that unusual Hollow I can sense over thataway."

"You assume correctly," Ichigo agreed with a nod. "Aizen has finally thrown something beyond the capabilities of his usual cannon-fodder at us and if either of us kill it, we'd be giving him too much information in the process. If only there was a powerful Shinigami, a former Captain even, that Aizen already knew was in the area that could fight that Hollow for us..."

Urahara's expression was a steadily-mounting study in anticipatory horror, reaching its climax at the exact moment he realized what Ichigo was asking of him, which was about when Ichigo was halfway done talking. Still, Urahara made a half-hearted attempt to deny the inevitable. "So, what, you want my help convincing your father to do it?"

Ichigo snorted. "We both know that Isshin stepping in at this point would be a disaster second only to me revealing myself to Aizen directly," he said as he pointed at his own face.

Urahara sighed. "Oh, very well. I feel obliged to point out how handily the both of you kicked my ass with both hands figuratively tied behind your backs."

Ichigo shrugged. "Sure, you're still rusty, but you're more than capable of taking on that thing. If we didn't have to worry about holding back, it wouldn't even be a hint of a threat. Oh, and I might just be being paranoid, but I recommend not touching that Hollow if you can avoid it."

Urahara seemed dubious about the whole affair, but nonetheless pulled Benihime out of her sheath, stepped outside, and vanished in a blur of Shunpo.

* * *

Gin had just returned with the cloaks when a humanoid figure suddenly appeared on the monitor. "Well now," Aizen said as he recognized Urahara, "this is certainly unexpected."

"Isn't that...?" Gin didn't bother finishing the question.

Aizen nodded. "I most certainly didn't expect _him_ to be the one who was helping Rukia, but I guess he finally decided that—"

Whatever Aizen was going to say, Gin would never find out, because at that exact moment, Kisuke unleashed the Hadō he had been chanting the incantation for, and a wave of yellow Ōkasen fire burst forth. Aizen frowned briefly. "That was less powerful than I was expect—" he got out, but then a much more powerful Hadō, one which Aizen remembered one of Urahara's associates once using against him, came out of a blind spot in the camera fly swarm and slammed into the Hollow from the other side, swallowing it whole. He swung the nearest camera fly around and grunted in recognition as he took in the form of Tsukabishi Tessai. "Of course; just using it as a distraction so his associate could prepare his own attack with impunity. Now _that's_ the kind of power I'd expect from a former commander of the Kidō Corps."

"Looks like yer toy's broken," Gin observed. "We still going to visit in person?"

"No; not much point anymore. It served its purpose: we now know that Urahara Kisuke and his associates have been providing assistance to Kuchiki Rukia."

With that, Aizen turned to leave the lab. "It may not have been what I'd expected him to do, but he's still a known quantity; it should be simple to deal with him when the time comes. In the meantime, I merely need to come up with a strategy to accomplish my goals while accounting for his interference."

* * *

As Urahara disappeared, Tessai gave Ichigo a chilling frown and walked past him. Ichigo gave him a respectful nod and then, the moment Tessai was no longer looking at him, shuddered; even after all this time, Tessai still gave him the creeps.

Before Tessai could Shunpo away himself, Rukia grabbed his arm. "Hold on a moment; I have an idea."

Ichigo blinked in surprise as Rukia explained, then nodded thoughtfully. "Just make sure Aizen doesn't have a camera fly watching the spot you arrive at, or it'll be obvious the Hadō isn't coming from Tessai."

"Of course," Rukia replied in a long-suffering tone of voice.

Ichigo winced. "Sorry, I know that was redundant; guess I'm more nervous than I thought."

Rukia kept hold of Tessai's arm as she guided his Shunpo to a blind spot in the cluster of camera flies Aizen had observing the fight, arriving just as Urahara finished his incantation for Ōkasen. "Hadō #88," Rukia muttered quietly so the camera flies wouldn't hear her. "Hiryū Gekizoku Shinten Raihō."

It was far from her most powerful release of the Hadō, but it was still more than enough to obliterate the Hollow in one strike; she quickly used Shunpo to get away before Aizen could see her standing next to Tessai. Ichigo nodded to her as she reappeared beside him. "I notice it worked."

Rukia nodded back. "None of the camera flies saw me, either; I think we got away with it."

Ichigo looked back in the direction he'd felt the Hollow's reiatsu in before it had disappeared. "Whatever Aizen does from now on will be planned with the assumption that Kisuke and Tessai have been the ones helping you all this time; whatever comes next will be much stronger than that."

Rukia sighed. "I doubt we can pull off a similar trick, either; we'll need to get them back into fighting form as soon as possible."

Ichigo abruptly made a disgusted face. "Not to mention we have to get back to class, now."

* * *

Nobody commented on the fact the Ichigo and Rukia both returned from the bathroom at the exact same time, or that it had taken more than a few minutes. Ichigo thought he'd caught Keigo glaring suspiciously at him on his way in, but didn't spend a lot of time worrying about it; Keigo was an idiot, after all.

As soon as lunch started, Uryuu and Chad both looked like they wanted to talk to them, but balked as they noticed the other's approach. Ichigo barely avoided facepalming as he watched the interplay. "I'll take Uryuu while you see what Chad wants?" he suggested to Rukia.

"Might as well," she replied with a shrug and walked past him towards Chad.

Ichigo strolled up to Uryuu. "What's your question?"

"I don't know where to start," Uryuu admitted. "What was with your reaction earlier?"

"Apparently I have enough experience with them to recognize Aizen's experiments on arrival; needed a different approach than usual to deal with it without giving away too much."

Uryuu frowned. "So that sudden increase in its reiatsu was—?"

"It dropping the pretense, yes. No doubt you observed it getting taken down shortly afterwards, so you know it wasn't a huge challenge, but it still marks an escalation that could lead to things getting... interesting."

Uryuu slumped gloomily. "So things are about to get worse soon, huh?"

"Probably. You might want to train with your father in case you need to defend yourself before one of us can reach you."

The disgusted grimace that flickered across his face in response told Ichigo _exactly_ what Uryuu thought of that idea, but he got it under control and said, "I'll... think about it."

Ichigo shrugged. "That's all I can ask. Was there anything else?"

Uryuu hesitated, then nodded. "Yes. How likely is it that I'll _need_ to defend myself from something Aizen sends after you?"

Ichigo winced. "Well... not low. I can't rule out him specifically targeting _anyone_ I've been in contact with, however tangentially, just to see what kind of reaction he can provoke... but I _suspect_ his efforts will be targeted against the known Shinigami in the area, at least in the immediate future."

Uryuu looked like he just swallowed an entire mouthful of something distinctly unpleasant, but nodded thoughtfully and grabbed his lunch. Ichigo returned the nod and was about to drop the privacy barrier, when Uryuu asked, "How much does Chad know?"

Ichigo glanced over and observed Rukia and Chad leaving the classroom. "Not much; he thinks Rukia is some sort of exorcist. I don't want to put him in the kind of danger knowing too much would be, especially since—unless something drastic happens—his powers won't start developing to the point where he can even _see_ spirits until Aizen's already been dealt with... I hope."

Uryuu's head snapped around so he could shoot Ichigo a confused look. " _His_ powers?"

Ichigo smiled wickedly. "I did say that, didn't I?"

Uryuu glared, but Ichigo just smiled wider and refused to provide clarification. With a sigh of disgust, Uryuu took his lunch and stormed out of the room. Ichigo just chuckled to himself, dropped the privacy barrier, and went looking for Rukia.

* * *

"What's on your mind?" Rukia asked as soon as she reached Chad.

Chad looked over (well over; _towering_ over, really) her head at Ichigo, who was talking with Uryuu. "He had quite the strong reaction not long after you left."

Rukia nodded. "I'm sure he did."

"And earlier, he said he wasn't an exorcist."

"Indeed he is not," she nodded again.

"You also said magic was involved in the way people can't hear us talking, and I can't hear anything Ichigo or Uryuu are saying, and find it difficult to pay attention to them even though I know they're standing right there."

Rukia hesitated for a moment. "It's not a requirement that the barrier be centered on the person generating it," she said, which was of course true, but not actually relevant since Ichigo _was_ currently centering it on himself.

Chad seemed to suspect the misdirection. "Are you saying that _you_ put a barrier around them just so Ichigo could chat with a classmate?"

Rukia sighed. "No, I'm not. What's your actual question, Chad?"

"How did Ichigo save your life?"

There was a pause of several seconds before Rukia spoke again. "I don't think it's a good idea to tell that story."

"I don't mean I want to know the details; I mean how is it _possible_ for Ichigo to have saved your life? You can use magic, and Ichigo said that isn't even your real body. How could anyone without similar capabilities have even been in a position to save your life?"

_And there it is,_ Rukia thought dryly. "Ichigo and I _don't_ have similar capabilities," she said, again truthfully... if you squinted and didn't count Shinigami basics. "The situation was... unique. Also, I was severely weaker than usual at the time." _Because I lost my powers giving them to Ichigo, and then they were suppressed, and also Ichigo was more powerful than me by that point... but still, it's the truth!_

Chad frowned, but didn't call bullshit on that; Rukia inwardly sighed with relief. "If that's all for now, we should probably actually _eat_ lunch during lunchtime."

* * *

"So what did Uryuu want?"

Ichigo shrugged and swallowed so he could respond without trying to talk through a mouthful of food. "Approximately how much danger he's in with Aizen starting to escalate; I warned him that it might be a good idea to train with his father. What did Chad want?"

Rukia snorted. "He knows, or at the very least _strongly_ suspects, that you're not an ordinary human."

"I didn't really think there was much hope of convincing him otherwise given my rather public reaction when I felt that Hollow arrive, but good to know."

Rukia gave him a sideways glance. "Earlier, when you were talking to Urahara..."

Ichigo raised an eyebrow. "What about it?"

"You said you might be being paranoid, but recommended that he not touch it. Did you... did you suspect it had some variant of Metastacia's Zanpakutō-destroying ability?"

Ichigo thought back to what it had felt like when the Hollow first arrived. "I'm not sure; all I know is that when it arrived, I was reminded of that story, and how that trick let it take on a Shinigami that should have been more than a match for it. Why?"

She hesitated for a moment, then shrugged. "Because when I fought it, I was vaguely reminded of what Metastacia, and even Aaroneiro, felt like. I can't imagine why _you_ would be reminded of Metastacia, though; it's not like you ever fought it."

Ichigo frowned. "Or Aaroneiro, for that matter. Maybe it's just a coincidence."

_Judging by the look on her face,_ Zangetsu noted dryly, _she believes that about as much as I do. Or you, for that matter._

"Okay, maybe not a coincidence, but I don't think we have enough information to do more than guess what's going on with that."

Rukia sighed. "You're probably right about that; I just wish we weren't dealing with so many unknowns." Then she grimaced. "I hate to say it, but I _almost_ wish that _our_ Kisuke were here."

Ichigo smirked. "Definitely only _almost_ , right?"

She rolled her eyes. "Of course; it would take a lot more than this for me to _actually_ want him here for any reason other than to punch him in the face."

"Just so long as we're clear on that," Ichigo said with a nod.


	9. Arrival

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At long last, despite many misadventures along the way, and in spite of this chapter being _almost_ finished back in March, I finally finished up this chapter. At least, I _hope_ I finished it; I'm feeling paranoid that there was some vital scene I meant to include but forgot to write (and forgot to leave a note to myself to write), but I _think_ that feeling is just my brain screwing with me. Anyway, have another chapter. I'm going to see if I can write the next chapter without it taking five months to finish.

Hanakari Jinta squinted his eyes in the afternoon light, carefully waiting for an opening. _Not yet... not yet... not—there!_ He swung with all his might, but missed; the ball bounced off the ground without his broom so much as scraping it.

"Jinta," came the plaintative voice of Tsumugiya Ururu, "could you please use that broom to finish cleaning? Tessai was in a foul mood today..."

"Ah, who cares?" Jinta replied airily. "It's not like—"

"You shouldn't be so dismissive of the big guy," came Ichigo's voice from immediately behind Jinta's head.

"Wagh!" Jinta cried in surprise, spinning around and holding up the broom in a ready stance as if it were a particularly blunt nodachi... with bristles. "How did you manage to sneak up on me? What do you want?"

"What else?" Ichigo replied with a shrug. "Here to see your boss again."

Before Jinta could yell some more, Ururu quietly stepped forward and slid the door open. "Ah, Tessai? Ichigo is here again."

Tessai poked his head out the doorway and nodded to Ichigo (who managed the appearance of nodding back nonchalantly). "Come in; I'll get the manager," he said, and vanished back inside the shop.

As soon as Tessai turned around, Ichigo involuntarily shivered. Jinta gave him a dubious look. "Why are you so scared of him, anyway?"

"I'm not. Shut up." Ichigo glared at him and stomped into the shop, slamming the door shut behind him.

Jinta scowled at the closed door. "I wish I knew what the deal was with that guy."

* * *

Urahara yawned before he could stop himself. Ichigo's eyes widened. "Please don't tell me you're just waking up now."

"...Okay," Urahara said after a moment. "I won't tell you. Decided to step up the training regimen, I take it?"

Ichigo blinked, sighed as he allowed the topic change, then nodded. "Can't exactly expect Aizen to take it easy from here on out; probably can't get away with that misdirection with the Kidō again, either. We need to make absolutely certain you guys can at least take on Hollows like that without our help."

Urahara looked over Ichigo's shoulder, then frowned. "So where is Rukia?"

"She's... taking care of an errand."

The glare Urahara fixed Ichigo with had absolutely no effect; that vague statement was all he was going to give up, apparently. "Am I going to like the results of this errand?"

Ichigo shrugged. "If it works? Absolutely."

"Hmm." Urahara considered pressing for details, but knew that would be a waste of everyone's time; if Ichigo didn't want to tell him right now, then Urahara wouldn't be hearing about it (not even if he bugged him; the time-travelers had apparently figured out a better means of private communications than room-scale barriers, because he'd tried slipping another listening device into Ichigo's bedroom and gotten absolutely nothing). "In that case, should we head down to the training room, or are we waiting for something?"

"I suppose we can get started now; Tessai, you too. We're going to need _everyone_ combat-ready as quickly as possible."

* * *

This wasn't like their roaming spars over the past few days; Ichigo was in drill instructor mode, and being relentless about it. "Not like that," he said, moving Urahara's hand down. "You can't afford wasted movements; take it again from the top." Then, without even turning his head, he shouted, "That's not the right incantation!"

Tessai's head snapped around in surprise as he realized he'd just transposed two words in his last sentence; his face blushed as he realized just how out of practice he was, and the potentially-explosive consequences if he'd tried actually casting the Hadō with that kind of mistake. Urahara narrowed his eyes at Ichigo suspiciously. "I've never seen you even use any Kidō, except that one to leave your body."

Ichigo just shrugged, seemingly indifferent in the face of Kisuke's obvious skepticism. "Are you saying I _need_ Kidō to kick your ass?"

Well, Urahara had to give him that one.

The truth, Ichigo reflected as he took Urahara through the set of exercises that another version of Kisuke had helped to teach him in the first place, was that he wasn't actually all that bad at Kidō. It's just that it normally took Shinigami _years_ to learn the control to use it, and he'd never had the _time_ to learn when the pace of fighting meant the next battle would be coming in minutes, hours, days, or weeks at the very longest. Training had needed to be focused on things that could be taught or trained in that amount of time because that was all the time they'd had, so of course he'd never had a few months or years to practice molding his reiatsu until the fighting had finally died down. Once he'd had that time, his skill with Kidō had grown at what was probably a fairly typical pace for Shinigami prodigies.

It's just that "a fairly typical pace for Shinigami prodigies" was way too long by his warped standards, skewed by his incredible growth in other areas and the fast pace of warfare, so he still had the _impression_ that he was bad at Kidō and tended to neglect it. There was still nothing wrong with his skills in that area, and of course he'd long since learned all the incantations for the major spells... even if he still struggled to remember that he _could_ use them in combat.

 _Maybe I can spend some time working on that before we go to Soul Society,_ he mused.

Zangetsu snorted. _I'll believe it when I see it._

* * *

"So!" Isshin's voice boomed out, causing the heads of three training Shinigami to snap around and stare at him. "I see you decided to get started while I was still at work."

"Obviously," Ichigo said, eyes narrowing. "More importantly, how did you slip in here without any of us noticing?"

Isshin's mouth widened into the platonic ideal of a shit-eating grin. "Hey, your old man still has a _few_ tricks up his—"

Whatever else he'd planned on saying was cut short as Ichigo's Shunpo-assisted punch knocked him flat on his ass. "And yet you still haven't learned how to dodge."

Urahara couldn't quite manage to restrain himself and a single chuckle slipped out before he carefully returned his face to a blank expression. Ichigo glared at him for a half-second before returning his attention to his father, and Urahara knew that he was (relatively) safe (for the moment). "Even distracted, I still should've been able to sense when your reiatsu—"

"URAHARA KISUKE, WHAT THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN DOING!?" a voice boomed across the training room and everyone—Urahara, Isshin, Ichigo, and even Tessai—flinched.

Ichigo recovered first, whirling around with a scowl. "Okay, no matter _how_ distracted I was, I definitely should've noticed _you_ arriving!"

Urahara finally turned around and gulped nervously as he came face to face with an angry black cat, which was standing on a nearby rock at eye level and glaring at him. The moment he had turned around, the cat snarled, "What's this I hear about you showing up out of nowhere to save the resident Shinigami and take down an, and I'm quoting now, 'bizarrely, ridiculously powerful Hollow'?"

"Yoruichi-san!" Ichigo suddenly interrupted, causing Urahara and the cat to gape at him. "How did you get in here without us noticing? Because I would've bet good money that was impossible with my barriers, and yet both you and—"

"Oh, good!" Rukia suddenly called on her way in, and Ichigo noted with some relief that he at least noticed _her_ reiatsu the moment it arrived. "I see my report had the desired effect."

Yoruichi spun around, eyes wide. "What in the _hell_ is—?" Simultaneously, Urahara blurted out, "Your _report_?" and Yoruichi cut herself off to stare at him.

Ichigo coughed, drawing everyone's attention back towards him. "By the way, Urahara, that errand that Rukia was taking care of was filing her report on yesterday's events."

Silence fell for a solid ten seconds as Urahara tried to comprehend that sentence. Yoruichi was also struggling to understand, but she had much less context, so her confusion was even greater. Finally, the alleged shopkeeper managed to sputter out, " _Why!?_ "

In response, Ichigo shrugged. "She could hardly _not_ report it, could she? It's not like Soul Society wouldn't know about it, and not reporting it would only make her look suspicious. Besides," he added, pointing at Yoruichi, "it worked."

"If somebody," Yoruichi growled, "doesn't explain what the _fuck_ is going on in the next—!"

"Hi, Yoruichi-san!" Rukia called cheerfully from behind her, making her jump around in surprise. "We're from the future and we were hoping the report I filed would get your attention so you'd come out here. And it did! Good to see you again, by the way."

The confused silence lasted longer than ten seconds, that time. Finally, Isshin set a hand on his son's shoulder. "You know, I thought _your_ explanations were somewhat lacking, but they've got nothing on hers."

"From the..." Yoruichi finally got out.

"Future," Ichigo repeated.

Yoruichi turned to face Ichigo as soon as he spoke. "And you're...?"

"Kurosaki Ichigo. Isshin's son."

"And you're—" she said, turning back to Rukia.

"Kuchiki Rukia, nominally an unseated officer of 13th Squad, currently assigned to a month-long patrol of Karakura Town."

This time Yoruichi turned to Urahara. "And they're—"

"Training us," the latter confirmed. "And very strong."

" _Hilariously_ strong," Isshin cut in.

"Moderately skilled," Tessai added.

Everyone stared at Tessai for a few seconds, but nobody seemed to be able to bring themselves to say anything, so they returned their attention to Yoruichi—except Yoruichi, who returned her attention to Urahara. "So that Hollow was sent by—"

"Aiz—" Urahara tried to say, but his interruption was interrupted by Yoruichi shouting, "WOULD _ONE_ OF YOU LET ME FINISH A FUCKING SENTENCE?!" and Urahara snapped his mouth shut with an audible click and bowed apologetically.

"So," Yoruichi resumed at a more normal volume level. "That Hollow was sent by Aizen. Presumably with a specific target in mind."

"Me," Ichigo supplied. "Well, sort of."

"'Sort of'?" she repeated in a disbelieving tone.

"He was probably trying to figure out who's been helping me," Rukia chipped in. "So we let him think it was Kisuke and Tessai."

"We're currently doing our best to avoid letting him know how powerful Rukia is, or that I'm a Shinigami," Ichigo clarified. "But to be clear, even though he didn't know I was the one helping Rukia foil some of his plans, he's still targeting me in particular."

Isshin's head snapped around at this new information and Ichigo winced, but did his best to ignore the stare his father was now directing at the back of his head. "His goal is twofold: to make me awaken Shinigami powers, and to get his hands on Kisuke's Hōgyoku. We're doing a pretty good job of foiling the former—or, well, making him think we're foiling it, since technically it succeeded beyond his wildest expectations—and the latter is taken care of."

Yoruichi blinked for a couple seconds before her eyes narrowed again. "What does 'taken care of' mean, exactly?"

"He won't tell us," Urahara grumbled.

"He didn't even tell _me_ ," Rukia added.

Ichigo shrugged. "The fewer people that know, the less likely Aizen is to find out. If I could erase my own memory of what I did with it—and I wasn't worried about that leading to a disaster of its own, somehow—I'd do so."

While Urahara and Yoruichi processed this statement, Isshin surreptitiously cleared his throat. Ichigo turned and cocked an eyebrow, noting that his father seemed... _diminished_ somehow. His head was bowed, his posture drawn-in, in a way he hadn't seen in a long time. _Almost like a man who sacrificed everything to protect his family only to discover it was basically all for naught._ Finally, Isshin softly said, "He's been after you this whole time?"

"White—the Hollow that you met Mom fighting—was Aizen's pet project. He was hardly going to _ignore_ the end result of one of his experiments to combine Shinigami and Hollow."

At the pained expression on his father's face, Ichigo found himself feeling the urge to reassure. "His toys can't hurt me, Dad; you should know that by now. And I _definitely_ won't let him hurt my family."

Isshin gave a weak smile. "Oh, I don't doubt you're more than a match for anything he might try to throw at you... _now._ But that wasn't the case _before_ , was it."

Ichigo couldn't help but wince again, remembering the damage Fishbone D had wreaked on their house... his sister in the Hollow's clutches... Rukia, badly wounded from trying to protect his dumb ass and holding out her Zanpakutō... "...Not really, no."

Isshin looked like he wanted to say something more, but before he got the chance Yoruichi made a loud throat-clearing noise to regain their attention (which, in Ichigo's opinion, was quite the neat trick for a cat... but then again, so was talking). "As touching as this is to watch, I have a lot more questions for you."

Ichigo gave his father an apologetic shrug and turned back to Yoruichi. "Okay, but I make no guarantees that we'll _answer_ those questions."

Yoruichi's only acknowledgement of the warning was to blink a few times before speaking again. "How long do we have until Aizen tries again?"

"No idea," Ichigo replied. "The previous attack was already outside of our prior experience."

Yoruichi stuck out her tongue in distaste before moving on to her next question. "Who else is Aizen working with?"

Ichigo and Rukia shared a momentary glance. "Are you planning on returning to Soul Society with us?" Rukia asked.

Yoruichi snorted. "Well, I'm hardly going to stay here when the time comes to take the fight to that asshole."

Urahara shuffled uncomfortably, as the current plan called for him to do exactly that; on the other hand, he could hardly provide a meaningful combat boost to Ichigo and Rukia in his current state, and he and his employees at the shop might be needed to help protect Karakura Town.

"In that case," Rukia continued after she and Ichigo exchanged another brief look, "we'll fill you in after we reach Soul Society."

Yoruichi seethed in disappointment, but Urahara and Isshin perked up, interested (and, at least in Urahara's case, slightly jealous). "Really?" Isshin asked.

"Well, we can hardly let her wander around without knowing who's truly dangerous," Ichigo explained.

Yoruichi shot him a glare before continuing. "How out of practice is this idiot?" She jerked her head towards Urahara.

" _Very,_ " Ichigo replied with a scowl. Urahara opened his mouth to protest, then shut it as he conceded that Ichigo was correct.

Yoruichi sighed. "In that case—"

Ichigo suddenly spun around. "If you're going to transform, at least put some clothes on first."

Yoruichi shot another glare at the back of his head, then rolled her eyes and disappeared in a blur of Shunpo.

* * *

"Got a sec?" Captain Kyouraku Shunsui asked as he simultaneously knocked and entered the office without waiting for a response.

"Hmm?" came the distracted response as Captain Ukitake Juushirou didn't even take his eyes off of the report in his hands.

Kyouraku eyed it with interest. "That must be a very fascinating report you've got there."

Ukitake finally looked up. "Sorry; it's the latest from Karakura Town."

"Ah, I see," Kyouraku said, nodding. "That's actually what I came to talk to you about; there's been some interesting rumours floating around."

Ukitake grimaced. "I don't doubt it. Apparently, a Hollow showed up that was much stronger than it initially appeared, and was taken out by a _very_ unexpected individual."

"So the rumours are true, then?" Kyouraku tried to surreptitiously catch a glimpse of the report itself, but Ukitake flipped it over and glared at him.

"Having not heard the rumours," Ukitake said, pointedly holding his hand on the report, "I couldn't possibly comment."

"Plausible deniability, is it?" Kyouraku snorted. "Very well; is your subordinate all right, at least?"

Ukitake bowed his head in acknowledgement of the concern. "Rukia says she's fine; the Hollow only scratched her arm before she got whisked away from the fight anyway."

Kyouraku raised a curious eyebrow. "Whisked away? Isn't _that_ interesting..."

"What are you thinking?" Ukitake asked, eyes narrowing.

"Only that for—" Kyouraku suddenly remembered that Ukitake hadn't said a certain former Captain's name out loud yet and changed his sentence at the last second, just in case "—the person the rumours claim was involved to decide to intervene in such a fashion, the situation must have been judged to be very dire indeed."

Ukitake tapped his finger on the back of the report exactly five times. "Do you think...?"

Kyouraku shrugged. "It would be hard for us to find out, one way or the other." He spun around and headed back towards the doorway. "I'm going to go make a nuisance of myself."

"Business as usual, then," Ukitake muttered as soon as the other captain had left.

* * *

Urahara quickly discovered, somewhat to his surprise, that he and Yoruichi were fairly closely matched. Perhaps it was an irrational expectation borne of his recent sparring partners, but he'd expected her to rapidly take him apart; instead, he gave as good as he got while Rukia watched to assess their relative strengths and Ichigo ran his father and Tessai through more drills. After Yoruichi took advantage of an opening to plant Urahara's face into the ground in retaliation for him having done the same thing to her earlier, Rukia decided to bring the fight to a halt. "I think it's clear by now that Urahara's seemingly-pathetic current state is only so by the standards of us time-travellers."

Urahara tried to glare at her, but Yoruichi was still holding his face into the ground, so he abruptly swiped upwards with Benihime, forcing her to let go and dodge, then leapt upright and dusted himself off. "I don't know if you've forgotten, but I _did_ used to be a Captain."

"With the key part of that sentence being 'used to'," Rukia replied with a snort, "and it _was_ a few years ago, now."

Urahara _did_ glare at her, that time. Rukia ignored it and kept talking. "We don't know how long we have until Aizen tries to remove Urahara from the picture, so we'll nonetheless need to keep pushing as quickly as possible."

She glanced back at where Ichigo was adjusting his father's stance, narrowed her eyes in thought for a second, then turned back to Urahara and Yoruichi. "For today, let's try a slightly different training exercise..."

Rukia pulled out a piece of paper and scribbled the word "Key" on it, then tucked it into the back of her Shihakushō's sash. "I will not be drawing my Zanpakutō. You two will use any and all means at your disposal to retrieve this piece of paper."

Yoruichi raised her eyebrows in surprise. "That's it?"

She almost didn't even see the blur when Rukia's punch sent her flying backwards. Urahara groaned. "Why would you _say_ that!?"

Immediately, he dodged to avoid the same happening to him. Rukia noted his caution and nodded approvingly... and then performed an _even faster_ Shunpo to get behind him and kick him across the room. He made impact, he noted sourly, a mere handful of meters away from Yoruichi, who was just standing up; Rukia's aim was as spot-on as ever. Urahara spit out rock and dirt and then grimaced. "This is going to be a long night."

* * *

"So," Ichigo said after making sure his father's stance was correct. "How _did_ you manage to get in here without me noticing?"

Isshin grinned. "Wouldn't you like to know."

The frown on Ichigo's face was far less playful. "Considering my detection barriers may be the only thing keeping us all alive? Yes, I _would_ like to know."

It was difficult to maintain a usual cheerful attitude in the face of a statement like that, so Isshin's grin faded as he shrugged. "Those barriers of yours are quite fancy, but you've used them around me often enough that I've gotten a feel for them, and if you time it just right and have enough experience with Shunpo, there's a way to slip—"

Ichigo suddenly smacked himself in the forehead. "Of course; it was staring me right in the face! Hold on, let me try something..."

As Isshin watched with interest, Ichigo started weaving multiple barriers together, moving in opposite directions to each other and causing enough resonances that Isshin was quite certain that even the Goddess of Flash herself couldn't find an opening to slip through the new barriers undetected. "How _do_ you do that?"

Ichigo blinked in surprise, then shrugged. "It's just some Bakudō tricks I picked up. I was never really as good at it as Hac—er, as any of my teachers. Why?"

Isshin shook his head and wondered if his son had any idea how skilled he really was... or, more worringly, if his assessment was actually _accurate_. "No reason."

* * *

Rukia didn't allow whatever the hell was going on with Ichigo's barriers to distract her as she spun out of Urahara's reach and made it look effortless. Urahara grit his teeth, but managed to keep his focus well enough to rush forward and make a swipe with Benihime for Rukia's midline. She had the gall to deflect his Zanpakutō barehanded, but while that was happening Yoruichi made for the paper with all of her skill with Shunpo.

Only to find her hand grabbed at the wrist by the hand Rukia wasn't using to hold Urahara's Zanpakutō.

"Oh that is _so_ not fa—!" Yoruichi tried to shout before Rukia swung her up and over her head to slam into Urahara, who saw it coming but couldn't get out of the way without relinquishing his own hold on Benihime, and while he might be somewhat terrified of Rukia, he was far more terrified of how Benihime would react if he did _that_.

"Ow," he said instead the next moment he could breathe.

"Ow," Yoruichi agreed from on top of him. "It's been like this every time?"

"Pretty much constantly," he confirmed.

"Are you going to lie around all day, or are we going to actually train?" Rukia taunted, hands on her hips as she leaned over them with a disapproving expression.

"I don't know whether I love you or hate you," Yoruichi announced.

Rukia shrugged. "I get that a lot."

* * *

Ichimaru Gin froze as he realized what he was seeing.

Reviewing camera fly footage of events that hadn't resulted in a battle was supposed to be boring; a contingency just in case something of interest had happened that they weren't aware of. This footage shouldn't have been any different: it was just some schoolkids walking home and talking in such low voices the camera fly couldn't even pick it up.

Nonetheless, it was definitely of interest.

Gin was surprised to see the Kurosaki boy that Aizen was so interested in walking with a girl who, despite wearing a school uniform, was clearly Kuchiki Rukia. He didn't recognize the other girl with them, but the other boy waiting for them that Ichigo broke off to talk to Gin recognized as the Quincy.

What _are_ they talking about so animatedly? Gin silently cursed the poor audio pickup on the camera fly and the fact that this footage isn't live, so he can't exactly just move it closer to listen better. From the Quincy's angry stance, this probably _should_ have resulted in a battle... and yet, somehow, it didn't.

To top it all off, Kurosaki Ichigo was at the center of it.

Gin frowned. Aizen was terribly upset that this particular child hadn't awakened to his powers, yet if he were just an ordinary kid right now, why _exactly_ was Kuchiki Rukia following him around in a gigai, to the point where she apparently infiltrated his school? And what is his relationship with the Quincy?

And how, exactly, could Gin use this to his advantage?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies to anyone who feels like this fic is progressing too slowly (a perception probably not helped by the months between the release of this chapter and the previous one); if it helps any, my intent has always been to skip forward about a week or so after Yoruichi arrived, so look forward to that.


	10. The Setup

The day after Yoruichi's arrival, Urahara finally sat down and told Isshin about the Visored. It mostly consisted of Isshin giving Ichigo a disbelieving look every time Urahara finished a sentence, and Ichigo solemnly nodding that, yes, it was really true. It only took three sentences for Urahara to realize Isshin was doing it just to fuck with him... and Ichigo, the absolute jerk, had been playing along from the start.

"So," Isshin had asked after the explanations were over, "are you going to try to get the Visored to come with you to Soul Society?" Urahara thought this was a good question, and gave Ichigo a questioning glance.

Ichigo just shook his head. "Trying to slip that many captain-class reiatsu signatures into Soul Society undetected on such short notice is doomed to failure, no matter how useful they might be in a fight, and that's not even considering how long it might take to convince them in the first place."

Urahara's eyes narrowed. "Yet you're convinced that _you_ can manage to sneak through no problem."

Ichigo smiled a smile that never touched his eyes. "If I had a few years for them to practice in, I might consider it, but training in the Dangai is a pain in the ass, so I won't."

Isshin had only a moment to regret having gotten himself a drink of water as he did a picture-perfect spit-take. "You mean you _have?_ "

"It was your idea, actually," Ichigo said with a bemused smirk. "Of course, you only considered it because the Kōtotsu had been destroyed shortly beforehand."

" _Destroyed!?_ " Urahara sputtered. "That's not even supposed to be—no, wait a minute! You're trying to distract me!"

Ichigo shrugged. "Not like I'd give you the details either way."

Urahara glared. "You are a very frustrating person."

"I learned it from you."

* * *

A week after Yoruichi's arrival, Ichigo frowned down at the textbook open on his desk, not really listening to the teacher's droning voice. In all probability, he didn't listen to this lecture the first time through, either, but he felt vaguely guilty about it now.

Not guilty enough to actually _listen_ , but still.

Instead, he found his thoughts drifting over the past week with a sense of growing frustration. Not because training hadn't been going well; if anything, training had been going better than it ever had before. Yoruichi and Urahara pushed each other forward in a way that was so familiar Ichigo couldn't help but smile fondly in the background, which had made his father do a double-take the first time he'd seen it, and Rukia had taken over Kidō practice without so much as a word of warning (and did a far better job at it than Ichigo); no, it definitely wasn't training making him frustrated. It had taken him until yesterday to finally pin down that steady increase in agitation:

All week, there hadn't been a single Hollow incursion.

It didn't make any _sense_ ; why would Aizen suddenly stop right after identifying Urahara and Tessai as an active threat? If anything, Ichigo had expected an increase in Hollow activity while Aizen scrambled to deploy something meant to remove the obstacle he knew about. No, that wasn't the right word; Ichigo couldn't imagine Aizen ever "scrambling" in any circumstance (except, maybe, if he were suddenly faced with Ichigo or Rukia with an active Bankai; that might just be far enough out of context to induce some scrambling), but to just _pull back_ like this seemed...

Terrifying. If he had to put a name to that feeling, "terrifying" was the only word that came to mind. Ichigo had _no clue_ what Aizen might be planning right now, and if anyone had proven he could be fiendishly unpredictable at the best of times, it was Aizen Sousuke. The only possible reason for Aizen not to be sending any Hollows would be because, as far as Aizen was concerned, there wasn't any need to keep his foes distracted; whatever he was preparing would simply be too overwhelming for any preparations they might try to make.

Of course, Ichigo knew full well that he could stop whatever it was with both hands tied behind his back, and the same went for Rukia. The problem was that actually doing so would be incredibly dangerous, because it would tell Aizen that something very out of the ordinary had happened to one or both of them. The best-case scenario would be for the employees of the Urahara Shop (plus Yoruichi, if necessary) to somehow handle whatever it was with only minimal help from Rukia, pretending to have no more combat capability than would be expected of an inexperienced, unseated officer of 13th Division.

Ichigo had absolutely no expectations that they would be able to pull off the best-case scenario.

"You need to stop fretting," Rukia abruptly interrupted his thoughts. "It's not like we can do anything about it that we haven't already done."

"I know," Ichigo replied instantly. "That doesn't actually help." _If anything, it makes it worse._

_Have you considered the possibility that you might just be an incurable grouch?_

_That's rich, coming from you._ Ichigo did his best to project the feeling of sticking his tongue out.

Zangetsu just snorted and fell silent.

"Look on the bright side," Rukia continued. "If you _do_ wind up breaking cover, we're probably all fucked."

"... _How_ is that the bright side!?" Ichigo demanded.

"Because then things couldn't possibly get any worse!" She answered cheerfully.

Ichigo glared at her. _We're all completely nuts,_ he declared to himself.

* * *

Chad had made his decision.

It wasn't an easy choice to make, but it ultimately boiled down to the fact that he couldn't stand by and do nothing while his friends might be in danger, so instead of telling Ichigo that their classmates were investigating him, he decided to do some investigating of his own.

Orihime making pretty much the same decision and the two of them realizing they were both trying to spy on Ichigo from the same corner was predicted by neither of them, but at the same time they weren't particularly interested in giving up just because of one unexpected thing, so they straightforwardly set about working together to figure out what was going on with Kurosaki Ichigo and the transfer student, and how Ishida was involved.

"I think he's just eating lunch," Orihime declared after Ichigo stayed sitting and eating by himself for a solid 5 minutes.

"Mmm," Chad replied.

"Surely he would've moved by now if he was planning on doing something during this lunch period," she continued.

"Aah," Chad answered thoughtfully.

Orihime squinted up at him. "You're not very talkative, are you?"

"Mmm," Chad agreed.

Ichigo continued eating his lunch, seemingly oblivious to his two watchers.

"Chad and Orihime have started stalking me," Ichigo blandly informed Rukia from within their privacy barrier once class resumed.

Yes, he could certainly _seem_ oblivious. He was good at seeming oblivious; it kept working to make people underestimate him, so he'd kept up the practice for most of his life.

Rukia raised an eyebrow. "Orihime, too? That's a bit of a surprise; I would've expected Tatsuki first."

"Oh, she and Keigo tried four days ago, but then got bored after ten minutes and gave up."

"Now that I can believe," Rukia said with a hint of a smile.

"I'm wondering how I'll be able to hide my body without them stumbling across it and drawing all kinds of wrong conclusions, in case I need to do something as a Shinigami."

Rukia shrugged. "If we get to that point, we probably have bigger problems."

Ichigo grimaced, but couldn't honestly disagree... although just the same, he was considering getting some practice in at evading his new tails without rousing too much suspicion.

* * *

"Ye lord!" Isshin recited during training that night. "Mask of blood and flesh, all creation, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man! Inferno and pandemonium, the sea barrier surges, march on to the south! Hadō #31: Shakkahō!"

The flaming spell slammed into the target he was aiming for, engulfing it in a minor explosion. "I don't think I've recited that incantation since the academy," he admitted, sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck.

"Your aim was off by a good 15 centimeters," Ichigo scoffed.

"Hey, what does it matter when the entire target was caught in the explosion, huh!?" Isshin fired back angrily.

Urahara muttered, "There they go again."

"It matters if the target is smaller than that, idiot!" Ichigo shouted right back.

Rukia snorted. "Just ignore them and focus on your own work."

"If the target was smaller, I would use a different spell!" Isshin bellowed, crossing his arms with a huff.

Yoruichi, rubbing her temples as the volume gave her a headache, asked, "How can you possibly ignore them?"

"That's not the point of this exercise!" Ichigo yelled, scowling.

Rukia shrugged. "Lots and lots of practice."

* * *

"Do you think maybe we should contact the Visored?" Ichigo asked on the windowsill that night, turning to face Rukia.

Rukia had her left leg up and resting on the sill, her arms loosely wrapped around the knee, while her right leg slowly swung to and fro as she watched the stars come out. After a few moments, she turned to Ichigo with a raised eyebrow. "Is this about your conversation with Urahara last week?" At Ichigo's nod, she continued, "I still agree that there's no way we could sneak them into Soul Society undetected in the amount of time we have left."

"Of course not," Ichigo replied. "I just mean that maybe we should get in touch with them anyway, and maybe get them involved in training."

Rukia thought about this. "I don't know how well they'd be able to integrate into our training sessions, but we could give them a heads-up and have them start preparing on their own."

Ichigo nodded; yeah, that sounded like a reasonable plan.

* * *

_I am an idiot,_ Ichigo thought to himself the next day.

He hadn't bothered having Urahara send word ahead; why bother? It's just Shinji and friends! It's not like they're incredibly paranoid fugitives who have never met him before, let alone know about the whole time travel thing. It's not like they'd _panic_ or anything when an unknown captain-class reiatsu showed up literally on their doorstep and strolled in like he owned the place.

 _You really are,_ Zangetsu concurred.

"Hold on!" Ichigo shouted as he blocked Hiyori's kick before it could slam into his head with his left hand, then spun his right and blocked Shinji's Zanpakutō with his still-sheathed one. "I'm here to _talk_ , damn it!"

"Who the fuck are you?" Hiyori asked as she made a spinning kick with her other leg, which Ichigo ducked under.

"I'm—oh, for fuck's sake..." Ichigo sidestepped Hiyori's Zanpakutō, tanking a swipe from Shinji's at his forehead in the process, and slammed his hands together before the other Visored could join the fight. "Hachigyō Sōgai!"

All eight Visored couldn't help but gape in shock as the barrier slammed into place, cutting the entire room off from the outside world. Hachigen recovered first, snapping his head back towards Ichigo, but before anyone had a chance to react, Ichigo took advantage of the barrier's presence and stopped restraining his reiatsu.

"Holy fuck!" Shinji gasped as he fell to the floor.

Kensei tried to open his mouth, but no words would come out. Mashiro, seeing this, tried summoning her mask, but couldn't concentrate well enough. None of the Visored could even think about standing up in the face of the overwhelming pressure.

"I just want to _talk_ ," Ichigo repeated calmly, trying to remember his lessons in Kaidō to make the light cut in his forehead stop bleeding into his eye, before tightly lashing his reiatsu again.

"And who," Kensei rasped before coughing and then resuming in a more normal tone of voice, "who the hell are you?"

"My name is Kurosaki Ichigo, son of Kurosaki Isshin, formerly known as Shiba Isshin and the former Captain of the 10th Division. I am also," he added, summoning his mask, "a Visored like you... and I've travelled back in time."

* * *

"Where's Ichigo?" Urahara asked when Rukia showed up for training alone.

"Oh, he went to go talk to the Visored," she replied, unconcerned.

Urahara blinked. "Without sending any kind of advanced warning?"

Rukia shrugged. "If Ichigo needs attempted homicide to be involved in order to talk to people, then that's what Ichigo will get."

Urahara gulped nervously and tried to convince himself that the Visored's current hideout would _not_ be a smoking crater by this time tomorrow.

* * *

"This is ludicrous," Lisa interrupted.

Love nodded. "Almost as ludicrous as everything else in our lives." Lisa glared at him, but didn't actually have a response.

Ichigo sighed. "This is going to be another long day, isn't it?"

* * *

Urahara nodded to Yoruichi before using Shunpo to slide past Rukia, who positioned her elbow to make him smack his own face into it... _if_ he'd been going for the piece of paper once again tucked into her Shihakushō's sash.

They had yet to successfully complete this exercise all week, but they _were_ a pair of former captains, and Urahara wasn't widely renowned as a genius for nothing. It had taken him longer to get a good feel for Rukia's mindset than he would've liked (especially given the way that she seemed to know all of his tricks before he even made them, which was _so_ unfair), but he thought he had it now, and he felt confidant that today, at least one of them would at least manage to _grab_ the paper, whether or not they could get it away from the time-traveler.

Rukia was briefly surprised when her elbow didn't make contact, but she immediately spun to kick Yoruichi in the torso, which made Urahara want to wince but he was too busy reversing direction and making another close-range pass. Rukia anticipated the second feint and caught a fistful of his sleeve, spinning him around to slam him into Yoruichi... except Yoruichi wasn't there.

Instead, Yoruichi was behind her, triumphantly holding up the piece of paper. Rukia blinked at her, then turned back to Urahara, who gave her a lopsided grin. "I can't believe you fell for _Utsusemi_ , of all things," he repeated back to her.

Rukia smirked back. "And _I_ can't believe you fell for a fake piece of paper." As Yoruichi, surprised, looked down at the paper she was holding to reveal that it said "Chain" instead of "Key", Rukia held her hand towards her. "Bakudō #63, Sajō Sabaku."

Yoruichi tried to Shunpo away as Rukia clenched her fist, but the yellow energy surrounded her too quickly, constricting around her and causing her to fall over. Urahara, dismayed, noticed that the paper with "Key" written on it was now on Rukia's left side, not in the back. With a growl, he picked up Yoruichi and hoped that Tessai, currently sparring with Isshin, would be able to break the Bakudō; otherwise, this training exercise would quickly devolve into being used as a punching bag again.

* * *

"You," Shinji told Ichigo once the explanations were finished and questions answered (even if most of those answers were "I'm not telling you"), "are one crazy motherfucker."

Ichigo sighed. "You're not telling me anything I don't already know, Shinji."

Thwap. "Don't be so familiar, new guy."

Ichigo stuck his tongue out as he rubbed the back of his head. "I've known you for _years_ , Shinji. You're far too late to fool me with that one."

Thwap. "Tch... ruin my fun, why don't you."

"Also, twice is all nostalgia gets you; try that again and something unfortunate might happen to that hand."

Shinji considered thwapping him a third time, but remembered the feeling of Ichigo's unrestrained reiatsu and decided against it, barely suppressing a shudder at the memory. "I'm going to drop by Urahara's place tomorrow. I want to see you guys in action before making any long-term plans."

Ichigo nodded. "Now there's that well-hidden sensible side of yours."

Thwa—whoops, turns out he wasn't bluffing about letting Shinji get away with it before.

* * *

Shunsui glanced sideways. "Ah, Abarai-kun; you're friends with Rukia-chan, yes?"

Renji, surprised both that the captain passing by had stopped to talk to him and that it was about Rukia, jumped to attention. "Y-yes, Captain Kyouraku!" To be perfectly honest, they hadn't spoken in some time, but he did still consider her a friend and that was probably more detail than the captain wanted regardless.

"How would you describe her fighting style?"

Renji blinked, confused. "Her fighting style, sir?"

"That's right."

He tried to find a succinct way of describing how Rukia had fought back at the academy. "Well, it's been some time since I've seen her in a fight, but I think I'd say she was... methodical. Liked to mix Kidō with Zanjutsu. Avoided fighting anyone stronger than her," an incident during their childhoods came to mind, "unless there was someone to protect. If I may ask, Captain, why do you want to know?"

Shunsui waved a hand dismissively. "Maa, I was just curious. Captain Ukitake has been talking about her recently, that's all. I won't keep you."

The captain continued onward and Renji stared at his back for a second before turning and resuming his trek to the 6th Division barracks, wondering what that had been about.

Shunsui, meanwhile, tried not to frown as he recalled the information he'd gotten from 12th Division about Kuchiki Rukia's time in the human world, and Hollows dispatched... and how she'd never even released Shikai, let alone used any Kidō, during her fights. In addition, in the particular battle that had started his interest in the first place, her report had indicated that she'd been fully prepared to engage the unusually strong Hollow despite the lack of any urgent threat to anyone except herself.

He thought about these things, and resolved to speak to Juushirou at the first available opportunity.

* * *

Rukia was once again sitting on the windowsill when Ichigo finally made it home. "Wow," she said, taking in his appearance. "You only have one cut on your face."

Ichigo grunted and jumped past her to slip back into his body. "I managed to get them to stop trying to kill me relatively quickly." He yawned on his way back to the window to sit down next to her. "You're not going to berate me for not warning them I was coming?"

"I thought you did that on purpose."

Ichigo winced. "Not consciously, anyway."

Rukia blinked, then burst out laughing. Ichigo just sighed and decided not to tell her about Shinji's plans for tomorrow; let that be some small measure of revenge.

* * *

To Chad's immense surprise, Keigo was waiting for him when he arrived at school.

"You're looking into Ichigo on your own, aren't you?" Keigo asked.

"No," Chad replied truthfully. He may have _intended_ to, but now he was looking into Ichigo with Orihime, so he wasn't on his own.

"Don't bullshit me!" Keigo cried, overexcited. "I've seen you snooping around. You've found something, haven't you?"

"I have not," Chad replied, again truthfully; he didn't think anyone could classify observing Ichigo's eating habits as having found something.

"Come on, man! I want in."

The partially-pleading, mostly-whining tone in Keigo's voice made Chad want to do nothing of the sort. "Nothing to get in on."

Keigo huffed. "Fine, then. I'll do it myself!"

As Chad was reasonably certain Keigo had already tried and gotten bored ten minutes in, he just shrugged and said, "Do whatever you want," before walking past the (much) smaller boy.

Keigo, seething, followed after, never noticing Ichigo observing the exchange with a frown.

* * *

Ichigo, standing in a part of the school grounds that rarely saw more than light traffic during lunchtime, quickly double-checked to make sure both that no other students were in sight and that no camera flies were anywhere nearby to potentially spot him outside of his body and slipped out of it, catching it before it could hit the ground. "Okay," he said to himself, positioning his body against the wall with its head down and arms crossed so anyone who glanced over would just think he was taking a nap.

"Now, if I were intercepting a Hollow..." he turned and used Shunpo to move further into town, taking a quick look around to make sure nothing unusual was going on.

A few minutes later the monitoring spell he'd left behind alerted him to his body slowly tipping over and hitting the ground. "Crap," he muttered, and bolted back.

* * *

"I think I saw Kurosaki-kun head in that direction," Orihime said, pointing to the left.

Chad raised an eyebrow, looking down the hall she was pointing. He'd never seen Ichigo take that hallway before, but perhaps that was the point. He led the way down the hall and through the door at the end, stepping out into a courtyard fairly far away from where any of them usually ate.

As Chad turned the corner of the building, he came to a sudden stop. Orihime gave him a curious glance before following him to see what he was looking at... and suddenly halted with a gasp because lying on the ground, not moving, was Ichigo.

And standing over him was a man easily a decade his senior with the same bright, shaggy hair, wearing... some sort of archaic black robe? And... was that a katana!?

"...What?" Orihime blurted out, gaping at him.

The man—whose facial features were, upon reflection, rather similar to Ichigo's; maybe he was his cousin?—stared back at them, seemingly as surprised as they were. "Um," he said, in a voice that confirmed his relation to Ichigo, before picking Ichigo up off the ground and... jumping straight onto the roof?!

Orihime and Chad stared at each other, stunned speechless.

* * *

_Ah, shit,_ Ichigo thought, rushing toward the stairwell so he could slip into his body out of sight. _How the hell did they see me, anyway?_

 _It _is_ a bit early for that, according to how things went the first time through,_ Zangetsu noted.

_This is all the fault of my fucked up spirit ribbon somehow, isn't it? I knew I should've put more effort into figuring out what the hell that means. It's always my soul's fault somehow, being all weird and screwing things up._

_If that weren't so painfully accurate,_ Zangetsu said, _I might feel insulted._

_I mean, what else could it be? Literally the only other thing I can think of would be—_

Ichigo, having gotten back into his body, abruptly forgot to maintain his balance and planted his forehead directly into the floor, but barely felt it in his shock.

* * *

Rukia sensed Ichigo outside of his body and frowned. She hadn't felt any Hollows arrive, and he didn't feel like he was fighting, so what was he doing leaving his body in the middle of the school day? There was always a risk that they might not notice one of Aizen's camera flies far enough away but coincidentally pointed in the right direction to see something they'd rather it didn't see, so needlessly running around in Shinigami form was just asking for trouble.

A quick glance at the clock showed there was still a good ten minutes before lunch ended, so Rukia followed his reiatsu to try and find out what was going on. Before she reached him, though, she almost ran into Chad and Orihime walking back towards the classroom. Chad seemed as inscrutable as ever, although Orihime's furrowed brow and frown implied deep thoughts about something; Rukia was in a bit too much of a hurry to engage them in conversation, however, so she slipped past them and followed Ichigo's reiatsu to the roof, where she found him back in his body and trying to look nonchalant despite what appeared to be the start of a bruise on his forehead.

"Where have you—?" she started, but cut off when he saw her and his eyes suddenly got very excited.

"Rukia," he said, in a rush, "I think _Aizen's Hōgyoku is in Karakura Town._ "


	11. The Punchline

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy... uh... day before Halloween?
> 
> Yeah, yeah, so much for "by the end of the month"... well, it was by the end of _a_ month; that counts, right?

Rukia blinked a few times. The other Hōgyoku? Here? _Now?_ "You think—? No, wait, go back. Why were you outside your body? Did you sense a Hollow I missed?"

Ichigo shook his head. "No, nothing like that, I was just trying to see if I could stash my body without anyone noticing, which... well..." The sheepish look on his face as he absently rubbed the back of his neck spoke volumes.

"You got spotted, didn't you?"

"My body fell over," he said defensively.

She lightly punched him in the arm. "Moron. Who was it?"

Ichigo sighed. "Chad and Orihime."

"So they saw your lifeless body?"

"Yes, and..." he took a deep breath. "And me."

Rukia blinked. "That's... _really?_ "

"Yes."

There was another couple seconds of silence. "So you think the Hōgyoku is responsible somehow."

"Well, I mean," Ichigo tilted his head to the side as he sent his recollection back, "originally we thought exposure to my reiatsu induced their powers, then Aizen claimed the Hōgyoku did it, and then we found out that Chad was a fullbringer. I'm not pouring reiatsu out like a broken faucet anymore, but my spirit ribbon definitely demonstrates that my soul still isn't exactly _normal_ , and I've long thought that maybe it was a combination of factors that caused their awakening around the time that it did.

"Now suppose Aizen, seeing that his little experiment here didn't turn out at all the way he was expecting, decided to see if there was some alternate means of inducing a reaction from his target... say, by bringing his incomplete Hōgyoku to the world of the living and seeing if it could cause some kind of reaction... if not by itself, then perhaps with the added stress of throwing Hollows at me again."

Rukia bit her lip as she thought it over. "It's certainly plausible, but even if you're right, how would we find it? You haven't felt it anywhere, have you?"

"No," Ichigo said, shaking his head. "If I had, I would have opened with that. Aizen is most certainly no slouch when it comes to concealing things, so it's doubtful we ever will... but he's hardly likely to leave it completely unguarded, is he? And it's much harder to conceal his camera flies."

Rukia smiled with predatory glee. "I think that tonight will be an ideal time to go hunting."

* * *

Unfortunately, Ichigo still had to go _back_ to class, and he wasn't looking forward to Chad and Orihime's reactions to The Lunchtime Incident™, which would no doubt be very awkward. Indeed, the moment he stepped into the classroom, he felt both of them staring at him. Chad seemed to relax after seeing that he looked fine, but Orihime seemed (if anything) to get more determined.

The moment he sat down, she came over and fidgeted next to him. "Kurosaki-kun..." she started, looking around nervously, before apparently deciding it was safe enough to keep going, "...do you have a cousin that likes to wear strange clothing and carry a sword?"

Simultaneously Ichigo realized how she had interpreted seeing him outside of his body, _and_ thought of what his actual cousins were like, and couldn't help but to grimace. "I... would be lying if I said that I did not," he reluctantly admitted.

Tatsuki, Keigo, Mizuiro, Chad, even Chizuru and Ishida suddenly felt intensely interested in the conversation. Ichigo shot a glare around the room before crossing his arms and focusing his gaze back on the teacher.

_I am so bad at keeping a low profile,_ he despaired.

* * *

Despite starting the moment school ended and going well into the night, they failed to find any suspicious locations being watched by an unusual number of camera flies.

"Okay," Ichigo said with a sigh, "maybe he's got somebody keeping an eye on it in person, wearing a reiatsu-concealment cloak. I doubt we'll be able to sense _that_ , so maybe this was a bust."

"Maybe not," Rukia said thoughtfully. "Aizen wouldn't trust just anybody guarding his precious Hōgyoku; if I had to guess, it's probably either himself or Tousen. If both of them needed to be somewhere else, I strongly suspect that Aizen would rather keep an eye on it with camera flies than leave Gin alone with it."

Ichigo nodded thoughtfully. It had taken a lot of guesswork to piece together Gin's motivations after the fact, since nobody had seen whatever confrontation had occurred between him and Aizen; all they had to go on was his mumbled words as he lay dying, damned near impossible to hear even with enhanced senses, possibly unaware he was even speaking out loud at all. Only Rangiku had heard most of it, and she'd only shared it after getting drunk on Gin's birthday, years after the fact. Their best guess was that Aizen had fed a piece of Matsumoto's soul to his Hōgyoku and Gin had gotten close to him in an attempt to steal it back.

The man certainly played the long game, that was for damned sure. Given how long he waited to make his move the last time, though, they almost certainly couldn't count on his help at this stage... but as Rukia noted, they could safely assume Aizen wouldn't leave Gin alone with his Hōgyoku if he could help it.

"How exactly to you propose that we make Aizen and Tousen need to be somewhere else at the same time?" Ichigo asked, trying and failing to come up with an answer himself.

There was that shiver-inducing smirk again. "Leave that to me."

* * *

Isshin was waiting in front of Urahara's shop for them when they got back. "Well, well, well," he said with a grin. "Guess who finally decided to show up."

_Oh crap,_ Ichigo thought. _I almost forgot. I'll bet he's trying to ambush me like a—_

And then Ichigo's barriers detected the fast-moving reiatsu and he knew he was correct; a half-step to the side and a slight shift of his sheath and the blond Visored smacked face-first into the end of it, immediately falling flat on his ass. "There was never a chance of that working on me, Shinji."

"That is _so_ not fair!" he cried, holding his nose.

Isshin burst out laughing. "Now you know what it's been like for us for the past, oh, week and a half."

Rukia raised an eyebrow. "So, Shinji decided to join us today?"

"You too?" Shinji sounded insulted. "I can't get any respect around here."

"Not from anyone who's known you for more than five seconds, no," Ichigo agreed.

"I suppose," Urahara said from the now-open doorway, "that introductions would be redundant, at least on your end."

Rukia nodded and thrust her hand out. "Kuchiki Rukia, 13th Division and fellow time-traveler."

Shinji sighed and stopped rubbing at his nose, allowing her to help him up with a suspicious glare. "13th Division _what_ , exactly?"

"Unseated," she replied, deadpan.

"Bullshit," Shinji snorted.

"I guess," she said, hiding a smirk behind her other hand, "you'll just have to evaluate my capabilities for yourself."

Isshin and Urahara very carefully _did not_ gleefully grin at the newest member of their training group.

* * *

_Fuck,_ Shinji thought as he was sent flying with a single punch.

_This._ A blur of Shunpo later, he was being kneed in the opposite direction before he could even recover.

_Horse._ Before he could even stand up, a powerful kick to his side sent him flying again.

_Shit!_ "Hadō #4: Byakurai!" Rukia blasted his mask off in midair.

He'd been Hollowfied for no more than 10 seconds, and not only did he fail to so much as slow her down, but she even _knocked him out of his Hollowfication_ using nothing more than a _level 4 spell._

She never even drew her Zanpakutō.

Isshin called out from the sidelines, "Welcome to the 'I got my ass kicked by Kuchiki Rukia' club."

"We're thinking of having t-shirts made," Urahara added.

* * *

"Another report from Rukia-chan, hmm?" Shunsui said without preamble as he let himself into Juushirou's office once more.

The office's actual owner sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "You know, I'm quite certain you have your _own_ paperwork you're supposed to be doing right now. In fact, I think I can hear your Vice-Captain shouting your name as we speak."

Shunsui flinched before he actually listened for a moment and laughed. "You almost got me for a second there. So, anything juicy this time?"

Juushirou gave up and looked back down at the report. "No abnormal Hollows this time; actually, all Hollow activity seems to have abruptly stopped, which makes such a marked difference she thought it was noteworthy."

_I agree_ , Shunsui thought to himself. _That practically screams artificial interference._

"But other than that, it's..." Juushirou hesitated. Shunsui raised an inquisitive eyebrow; the other man gave a 'harumph' and shrugged. "There's an unusual amount of small talk in this report compared to the last one."

"Small talk?" Shunsui blinked in confusion.

"Yeah. 'Yesterday, I saw a—'" Juushirou suddenly cut off, frowning at the paper.

Shunsui felt abruptly forgotten. "...Saw a what?"

"Three repetitions of... this is—!" Juushirou looked around, then waved Shunsui closer and scribbled on some scratch paper. Shunsui, still confused, peered down at it:

_'This is a code,'_ Juushirou wrote. _'I never taught Rukia but I did teach Kaien; message "please distract 5 and 9 for several hours; will explain in person upon return".'_

Shunsui blinked, then borrowed the pen. _'5 and 9? Captains?'_

Juushirou nodded before silently dissolving the paper with Kidō, and Shunsui cleared his throat. "I think you've been doing paperwork too long; you need to stretch your legs."

"There's nothing wrong with my legs," Juushirou grumbled even as he stood. "And you most _certainly_ don't need to spend more time goofing off instead of doing your own paperwork."

"Well, maybe you could help me with that..." Shunsui smiled as an idea occurred to him.

* * *

"Wait, hang on a minute." Shinji absently rubbed his forehead. "You've been unable to so much as _grab_ this paper for an entire _week?_ "

Yoruichi simply raised an eyebrow. "Are you implying you'd fare better?"

"Well, I mean, I could at least put a _hand_ on—" Shinji cut off when a certain time-traveling Shinigami's sandaled foot met his ass and he found himself skidding across the ground.

"On what, exactly?" Rukia asked with a smirk.

Ichigo rolled his eyes. "Come on, you've already kicked his ass tonight. My turn."

_Oh good, the Ichigo train will be running over Shinji tonight._ Urahara's thoughts must have showed on his face for a moment, because Ichigo suddenly spun around. "Why are you looking so relieved, Urahara? I meant it's my turn with _all_ of you."

Urahara and Yoruichi both simultaneously tried to run away with Shunpo, only to discover that Ichigo was absolutely fast enough to catch both of them with his bare hands in the blink of an eye. Urahara wasn't even surprised when they both found themselves slammed down on top of Shinji, who gave a weak groan.

Ichigo smirked and held a hand out; Rukia shrugged and slapped paper into it. Ichigo carefully tucked the paper into his Shihakushō. "Well? Are you just going to lie there all day, or are we going to get some training done?"

Shinji darkly muttered something about cheating.

_You don't even know the half of it,_ Urahara thought glumly.

* * *

"The old man is lookin' for ya," Gin spoke the moment he entered the observation room. "You _and_ Tousen, for some reason."

Aizen didn't look away from the screen. "I heard. It is interesting that it's just the two of us, however... I'll fetch Tousen. This experiment should be fine without us for a short period of time."

* * *

_Three more seconds,_ Urahara thought as Shinji got punched across the room.

Yoruichi rushed in and starting throwing Shunkō-assisted punches, which Ichigo dodged with careless ease. Urahara tried firing a bolt of Kidō through an opening, but Ichigo slapped it away barehanded even as his other hand deflected another of Yoruichi's strikes. Shinji came slicing back in, but Ichigo just slid backwards a few meters and Shinji's Zanpakutō hit nothing but air.

_Two more seconds._ Urahara flipped Benihime out and tried to strike from behind, but Ichigo positioned his sheath to block without even looking, leveraging up onto Urahara's Zanpakutō to kick out with both feet, nailing Shinji again and missing Yoruichi by bare centimeters. Urahara wordlessly fired a blast of crimson energy from Benihime at point-blank range, but Ichigo was suddenly behind Yoruichi and elbowing her towards Urahara at high speed. _One more second._

Urahara spun out of the way of a direct impact and did his best to help stabilize Yoruichi's backwards skid, while Shinji slipped on his mask and tried to use the enhanced speed to dash behind Ichigo, only to get smacked back by Ichigo's fist. Yoruichi tried to take advantage of the slight distraction to come back in again, but Ichigo grabbed her arm with his other hand and flung her after Shinji.

_Now!_ "Bakudō #61," Urahara muttered, practically throwing his hand towards Ichigo. "Rikujōkōrō!"

Six slices of energy slammed into place around Ichigo's midsection, and Isshin appeared behind his son in a blur of Shunpo, reaching for the paper.

"Did you know?" Rukia said mildly from behind Urahara, startling him. "The very first day—well, night—I met Ichigo, he broke out of a binding spell with raw strength, without even having awakened his powers."

Urahara gulped nervously and looked back at Ichigo, who slammed his arms out, shattering the spell and knocking his father back simultaneously. "Be fair," he said, smirking back at Rukia. "It was only level 1."

"I can't help but notice," Shinji drawled as he crawled back to his feet, holding his nose, "that I wound up getting smacked around a lot more than anyone else."

Yoruichi shrugged. "Not our fault you haven't learned how to dodge."

Urahara, Isshin, and Yoruichi all simultaneously dashed backwards at that, leaving Shinji standing out in the open; Ichigo shrugged and punched him in the jaw, sending him flying backwards once more.

"They _are_ learning," he remarked to Rukia dryly.

* * *

"Okay," Shinji said five minutes later, panting on the ground. "I admit it: you've got some skills."

Ichigo just barked a laugh and shook his head ruefully.

* * *

"Ah, Captain Aizen. I'm glad you arrived so promptly."

Aizen raised an eyebrow. "I thought the Captain-Commander wanted to see me."

Shunsui tipped his hat. "Yes, well, Yama-jii was kind enough to lend the use of the 1st Division barracks for this."

Tousen cleared his throat behind them. "And what is 'this', exactly?"

"Well, you recall that joint training we did... ah... two years ago?" Shunsui paused while Tousen blinked in surprise and Aizen thought for a few moments, then nodded. "Well, Nanao-chan has been hounding me for the paperwork for that for the past six months, only I was over by the teams working with the 10th and 13th Divisions, which was practically the opposite side of Seireitei from where the teams training with 5th Division were, so..."

("Wait," Juushirou had said when Shunsui had explained as they walked towards the 1st Division barracks. "You mean when you said you wanted my help with paperwork, you meant you _actually_ wanted my help with paperwork?"

Shunsui had just shrugged. "Why are you so surprised by that?")

"If you need information about 5th Division's performance in those exercises," Tousen asked, "then why am I here?"

"Oh, that would be my fault," Juushirou said, giving a little wave from the corner where he was sitting. "I ran into Captain Kyouraku while he was on his way to speak with the Captain-Commander, and since I also wanted to talk about joint training exercises, we decided to combine visits. I actually wanted to discuss the next exercise with you, because I have some teams I think would benefit from sensory-deprivation training, and I thought you might have some helpful ideas..."

* * *

"Whew," Ichigo said, collapsing onto his bed. "That was fun. Also surprisingly good training for _me_ , trying to keep them all away from the paper with just Hakuda."

"Isn't it?" Rukia said, pulling herself up into the closet. "Plus you saw how much of a difference there was between Shinji and the others."

"Mmm-hmm," Ichigo replied, half into his pillow, as he closed his eyes. "They're starting to get back into the swing of things. By the time we go to Soul Society, Grand Fisher doesn't stand a chance."

Rukia hesitated for a second before asking, "Are you sure you're okay with not being here on June 17th?"

At first, she thought the shrug from the still-lying-down Ichigo would be her only response. Then he opened his eyes again and pushed himself into a sitting position. "I haven't really seen June 17th in the same light ever since I found out about Grand Fisher, and later with what I learned about my mom..."

He shrugged again. "Besides, I technically already visited mom's grave on this particular June 17th, so it doesn't make a difference either way."

Rukia snorted and laid down, closing the closet door; that sounded like proper Ichigo-logic to her.

* * *

"Ichigo," came a distant voice. Ichigo mumbled something in response and ignored it.

The voice became slightly more insistent. "Ichigo!" Ichigo rolled over and tried to continue ignoring it.

The voice was now fed up with this bullshit. "Kurosaki Ichigo, wake the fuck up right now or I will kick your ass so hard you land in Soul Society!"

Ichigo immediately snapped upright and winced at the angry look on Rukia's face. "Fuck, what? It's only been—" he glanced at the clock "—two hours since I got to sleep!"

Rukia was not impressed by this complaint. "Pay attention to your fucking barriers!"

Ichigo did, and then promptly gasped in shock and rolled straight out of his body, immediately disappearing in a blur of Shunpo.

* * *

To say that the two of them were highly capable Shinigami would be putting it mildly. Their list of teachers, in almost every discipline, was a veritable who's-who of the most skilled Shinigami in their areas... at least among the ones who were still alive to teach them. When Ichigo and Rukia decided to be somewhere quickly, their Shunpo was record-breaking.

So when Ichigo finally noticed that his wide-area barriers watching for signs of camera fly activity had detected a swarm of them in an out-of-the-way part of Karakura town, it took a very small fraction of a second for the two of them to arrive in a nearby blind spot.

"Is that the building they're watching?" Ichigo whispered.

"Looks like it," Rukia whispered back. "Every entrance seems to be covered."

Ichigo squinted at an upper-floor window. "We could probably open a window, slip in, and close it behind us fast enough that even one of those camera flies would only _maybe_ see a slight blur."

Rukia raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Without shattering it into a million pieces?"

Ichigo paused at that. "We could try putting a reinforcement barrier on it—"

"Absolutely not." _For one thing, and Ichigo _knows this full well_ , it would require at least a full second within view of those camera flies to apply said barrier, and then it could no longer be opened, which was the whole point!_

Ichigo did know that full well, but continued stubbornly on with his initial idea. "Well, what if we—"

Rukia gave an exasperated sigh. "The window is _not a viable option_ , unless we want to take out some of the swarm first, which would be a dead giveaway that we're here."

Ichigo frowned, but nodded. He turned his attention back to the building... and then looked down at the street and froze. "I have an idea."

* * *

"Okay, I understand that the ground very effectively blocks their line of sight," Rukia began.

"That's what makes it so perfect!" Ichigo interrupted, inordinately proud of himself.

" _However_ ," she resumed, "I can't help but feel that blowing holes in basements is a less-than-ideal solution for reaching our target."

Ichigo shrugged. "We're under time pressure; they'll blame it on a gas explosion or something. Happens all the time with Hollow attacks."

"I suppose you _are_ technically a Hollow..." Rukia muttered under her breath.

Ichigo reached out and put his hand on concrete. "It should be on the other side of this wall."

"If anyone asks, I'm blaming all of this on you."

"Duly noted."

With that, Ichigo blew up the wall.

* * *

"Oh? I wasn't expecting _that_..."

* * *

Ichigo coughed and waved the dust away from his face. "Well, it doesn't _look_ like a super secret lab for containing the Hōgyoku, but that might just be very good camouflage."

Rukia peered into the adjoining basement. "It... looks like a lot of dusty mannequins."

Ichigo blinked and looked around. "Department store storage warehouse, maybe? Whatever; those camera flies aren't watching for the hell of it. Let's see what's hiding in here."

They cautiously stepped through the hole Ichigo had made and stayed alert with all of their senses.

"Anything?" Ichigo asked.

Rukia lifted a mannequin to see the bare floor beneath it. "Not in this room, anyway." She glanced up to count the exits. "I'll take this hallway, you take that one; we'll meet back here and then try upstairs."

Ichigo nodded and started opening doors. Empty. Empty. A single box in the corner full of paper with ink so faded it was unreadable; no Hōgyoku hiding underneath. Empty. Three chairs, only one of which was upright, in the middle of an otherwise empty room... covered in just as much dust as everything else. Empty. Three boxes, filled with... napkins? _Who keeps three boxes full of napkins in a dusty, basically-empty warehouse?_

_I guess the kind of person who thinks a roomfull of mannequins is worth saving,_ observed Zangetsu.

No Hōgyoku hiding amongst the napkins. Another empty room. A room with— _GAH! Oh, just... more mannequins, for some reason._

_Who needs this many mannequins?_

Ichigo pondered that, but couldn't think of an answer for Zangetsu. After reaching the end of the hallway, he hadn't found anything that hinted at Aizen's involvement... just a whole lot of dust-covered rooms that didn't seem like they'd been used in many years. There didn't even seem to be a hidden passage to a secret lair somebody might have hidden a powerful artifact from Soul Society inside of; apparently, this was mostly used for the storage of dust-covered mannequins.

"I've got nothing," Rukia said when they met back up in the room full of the aforementioned mannequins. "How about you?"

"Well, I think I might have a new phobia of old mannequins," Ichigo said, as he shuddered away from one missing an arm, "but other than that, nothing. It doesn't even seem like anyone but us has been in this building in the past decade."

"Yeah," Rukia replied, nodding absently; "that's the impression I got as well. Why would—?"

She abruptly stopped, and both her and Ichigo stared upward; all the camera flies had abruptly left. Ichigo frowned and said, "What the hell is going on here?"

They raced up the stairs to the empty ground floor of the warehouse, which was somehow even creepier than the mannequin room. _Dread,_ Zangetsu pointed out. _That's dread you're feeling._

_That's not really helpful,_ Ichigo thought back.

"Come on," Rukia said, motioning towards the nearest door.

They cautiously cracked it open and peered through, but there was nothing to see; the camera flies really were gone. They couldn't see or sense anybody nearby; the area seemed, for all intents and purposes, to be abandoned. Slowly, they opened the door and stepped outside, but there was still nothing to see but old buildings and a moonless night sky.

Until suddenly...

"Well well well," came a drawl from somewhere above them, making Ichigo freeze in surprise; he _knew_ that voice. "I didn't actually expect my little trap to actually _catch_ anything."

Slowly, Ichigo turned his head until he could see the source of the voice (and the sudden flare of reiatsu) crouched on top of the roof of the building across the street. Ichigo said nothing; he couldn't imagine anything he could say that wouldn't somehow make this even worse.

"How d'ya think Aizen would react if I told him about _this?_ " Ichimaru Gin said, a reiatsu-concealment cloak in his hands and a wide grin spreading across his face.


	12. Oh Shit Oh Shit Oh Shit

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Over 100 bookmarks?!? I am flabbergasted.
> 
> This chapter is shorter than average, but you also get an omake; see the link in the chapter end notes.

_Oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit..._ Ichigo's thought process was a bit repetitive, but Zangetsu didn't call him on it; it wasn't like he disagreed, after all.

"Not talkin'?" Gin called down, before he dropped down from the roof. "I was so lookin' forward to hearin' from ya, though."

"If anyone asks..." Ichigo muttered under his breath before he stepped between Gin and Rukia.

Rukia didn't acknowledge that she heard him; he already knew she had. More importantly, they both knew what he meant: _"If anyone asks, I'm blaming all of this on you."_ Her words immediately before they'd broken through the wall. Just because Ichigo's cover seemed to be more-or-less blown didn't mean hers necessarily was; if they could just keep from giving away how much of an unseated officer she clearly was _not_ , there was a chance—however slim—that no matter how this turned out, they might still be able to get Aizen to underestimate her. So instead of letting more of her reiatsu loose, she pulled back into a ready stance, hand on the hilt of her sheathed Zanpakutō, ready in case Gin should do something she couldn't ignore.

"What exactly is yer relationship with the girl, I wonder?" Gin tried again; Ichigo didn't so much as flinch.

In fact, most of his attention wasn't even on Gin's words; he was frantically trying to figure out why Gin was here in the first place. _Think, think, think... either you were wrong about how much Aizen would trust him near the Hōgyoku, or it was never here to begin with. If it was never here to begin with, then... the swarm of camera flies was bait? Just to see if anybody responded? Why would he think that somebody would respond to the presence of camera flies in the first place?_

"Yer poker face is incredible," Gin said, admiringly. "I feel the insatiable need to poke at it."

Gin's Zanpakutō abruptly shot forward, but Ichigo blocked without so much as twitching an eyebrow; Gin frowned. "Well, that's hardly an interesting reaction."

"Oh?" Ichigo replied. "I found it very interesting."

_Maybe he guessed; perhaps this was a test to confirm a suspicion rather than an actual attempt to corner us. He _did_ say he didn't expect to catch anything, but taking anything Gin says at face value is..._

Zangetsu snorted. _Inadvisable?_

_To say the least._

"In what way?" Gin asked.

"I learned," Ichigo said, slowly smiling, "that your attention is far more focused than your cavalier attitude would suggest."

The first time Ichigo and Gin crossed swords, Gin knocked him straight out of the Seireitei with a single push of his Zanpakutō, and Ichigo could tell (especially the next time they fought) that Gin's attention was elsewhere; whether Gin could instinctively sense that this Ichigo was stronger or whether the differing circumstances of their meeting dictated the difference in his attitude ultimately didn't matter. The important point was that Gin would be taking this fight seriously, and that could be either very good or very, very bad.

Gin frowned. "You're a creepy guy, you know that?"

Ichigo just barely kept himself from grinning wider at the nostalgic opinion. "You're one to talk."

"Now that's just hurtful," Gin replied before rushing forward with Shunpo.

* * *

Isshin jolted awake, his head instantly focusing in the direction from which he'd felt the brief flare of reiatsu. _Was that...?_

He debated with himself for three seconds before he ran out the door and into the night.

* * *

_Don't release Shikai if you can avoid it,_ Ichigo reminded himself as he ducked under a slice and shoved Gin back with his palm. _The less information you give away the better. Under no circumstances allow him to draw Rukia into the fight or her return to Soul Society may well become impossible. Keep your reiatsu contained, but not so contained you can't stop him from doing serious harm; even more importantly, avoid keeping it perfectly matched to his or the sheer level of control will be its own giant red flag._

Gin stabbed out with Shinsō once more thinking Ichigo's own Zanpakutō was out of position, but Ichigo brought the sheath up to smack it away. _What is his goal here? He asked what Aizen would think _if_ he told him, which isn't the same thing as saying he _would_ tell him; on the other hand, he can't possibly be entertaining the possibility of betraying him this early. It would go against every single one of our predictive models._

_Yeah, because our predictive models have been _super_ accurate so far._

_...You make an excellent point, there, but getting our hopes up at this point is just asking to get stabbed in the back._

Zangetsu grunted in response, but could hardly disagree.

Ichigo parried another thrust and retaliated with a swipe at Gin's throat, which the captain simply ducked under and went for Ichigo's torso, which Ichigo avoided by using Shunpo to get behind him and kick him into the nearest building, except Gin evaded with Shunpo of his own, ending back up on the roof he started from, not trying to attack.

Ichigo raised an eyebrow. "Are we done already?"

Gin shrugged. "This doesn't seem to be going anywhere meaningful like this; not when we're both holding back so much."

Ichigo said nothing, and instead directed his thoughts at Zangetsu. _How do you think this is going to end? He's unlikely to seriously try to kill me, but if he unleashes his Bankai, I seriously doubt I can hold him off without an unreleased Zanpakutō... but doing so would—_

Gin opened one eye wide enough to glare at Ichigo. "That's a very annoying habit."

"Which one?" Ichigo asked, innocently.

"The one where you ignore what I said; afraid of what you might let slip?"

"Did you say something earlier? I didn't notice," Ichigo lied.

Gin smiled again, dropping the glare. "How unobservant of you; it's rude to ignore your elders when they talk."

"I'll try to keep that in mind for the future," deadpanned Ichigo.

Rukia avoided a contemptuous snort. Just barely, but she did.

"Somehow," Gin said, raising his Zanpakutō, "I don't believe you."

Ichigo braced himself; that almost looked like—

"Bankai," came the call, but before Gin could continue, Ichigo was already gone, having grabbed Rukia and vanished in a blur of Shunpo.

* * *

Isshin reached the Urahara Shop at the exact same moment Ichigo and Rukia appeared, neither at all harmed, causing Isshin to sigh with relief. "What hap—?"

Ichigo cut him off and motioned for them to get inside the shop. None of them were particularly surprised that Urahara was already awake and waiting for them.

"So," Urahara said once they were all inside and the door closed. "I take it something happened."

"Something," Ichigo repeated. "Yes, something."

Rukia sighed. "We walked into a trap."

Isshin frowned. Her tone wasn't what he would've expected from those words; she sounded more like someone talking about having dropped food on the floor than someone talking about falling for a ploy and getting ambushed by the enemy. "Who—?"

Ichigo shrugged. "Gin; I'm not at all surprised he was capable of figuring out enough to set a trap, but I _was_ surprised he bothered in the first place. Of course, I didn't particularly feel like sticking around to ask him about it when he was about to release his Bankai."

There was an extended silence as Isshin and Urahara tried to wrap their brains around that statement. It was finally Isshin who said, "Gin? As in _Captain Ichimaru Gin?_ "

"Yeah," Ichigo said dismissively. "I think he's been working for Aizen since before he even entered the academy, although he's _probably_ really only trying to get close to him so he can kill him and steal the Hōgyoku, but that plan didn't work out too well for him the first time around, but it _does_ mean Aizen doesn't really trust him, unlike Tousen—"

" _CAPTAIN TOUSEN KANAME IS _ALSO_ WORKING WITH AIZEN!?_ " Isshin bellowed.

Ichigo winced. "You're lucky I put up secrecy barriers pretty much on instinct, or Gin probably would've heard that and come straight here."

Urahara shrugged. "We already knew that, though."

Isshin whirled on Urahara. "What do you _mean_ 'we' already knew that? _You've known all along?!_ "

"I can't possibly keep track of everything you do or do not know!" defended Urahara.

"So wait," came Yoruichi's voice from the doorway towards the training room, where she was leaning against the wall. "Was that all you were going to tell me when we got to Soul Society? Because we've known that for the past century."

"Well, I didn't know you already knew that!" Ichigo shouted angrily. "Apparently nobody tells me shit!"

"You think nobody tells _you_ shit!?" Isshin butted in, indignant.

Urahara's voice was aggravated as he said, "Can we _please_ try to return to the matter at hand?"

"We have a matter at hand?" Ichigo asked, prompting Rukia to smack the back of his head.

"Of course we have a matter at hand, fool! Pay attention; we're talking about Gin."

Urahara coughed. "Actually, we're talking about how _Gin caught the two of you in a trap_ and you don't seem too concerned by this fact—"

"Yeah, we got caught in a trap," Ichigo said with a shrug, "but it's _Gin_ , so that means we weren't in any real danger to begin with; plus I never even released Shikai and Rukia stayed out of the fight, so he's got basically nothing to tell Aizen... assuming he tells him anything at all."

"And also," Rukia added, "since it was Gin, that means the Hōgyoku was almost certainly never in that area to begin with."

"Wait a minute," Urahara said, wide-eyed. "You guys were looking for _the Hōgyoku?_ "

"Well, Aizen's Hōgyoku, to be precise." Ichigo shrugged. "It was just a theory to explain how Chad and Inoue saw me in Shinigami form."

Everyone was silent for three or four seconds before Urahara fell backwards into a nearby chair, letting out a quiet " _What._ "

Ichigo chuckled nervously. "Well, okay, the first time around we originally thought they got their powers from proximity to my overflowing reiatsu, then Aizen claimed the Hōgyoku gave them their powers, then we found out Chad was a Fullbringer—"

'What the fuck is a Fullbringer,' Urahara mouthed at Yoruichi who, being similarly confused, just shrugged.

"-so I thought maybe it was a combination of factors, and since your Hōgyoku isn't here anymore, then maybe Aizen brought his Hōgyoku here, because the most likely other explanation for them being able to see spirits early is that it's somehow related to... oh, right! I almost forgot." Ichigo manifested his spirit ribbon and held it out to Urahara. "Do you have any idea what this means?"

Urahara blinked at the splotchy red-and-white spirit ribbon a few times, then dropped his face into his hands and started letting out a soft, high-pitched wail (it was too quiet to be classified as a "scream of terror"). Ichigo turned to Rukia with a manic grin. "Did I just _break Urahara?_ "

Rukia sighed and deadpanned, "Yes, Ichigo, you finally broke Urahara. Congratulations."

* * *

"Vice-Captain Ise!" 

Ise Nanao, Vice-Captain of 8th Division, turned and was surprised to see 6th Division's Vice-Captain, Abarai Renji, running towards her. "Is there something I can do for you, Vice-Captain Abarai?"

Once Renji was close enough not to have to shout, he began walking alongside her. "I have those reports you were asking about the other day," he said, handing over some paperwork.

"Ah, thank you." Nanao tried not to sound too surprised as she folded them in with the packet she was already carrying and tucked it back under her arm; Renji might take his new duties seriously, but getting this paperwork done within a week of her request was _very_ prompt. "I'll make sure any appropriate followup winds up on your desk." With that done, she expected Renji to run off again.

Instead, he kept walking beside her, took a deep breath, and said, "This may sound like an odd question, but have you noticed anything unusual about Captain Kyouraku's behavior recently?"

_Recently?_ Nanao thought. _When has he _not_ been unusual?_ "I'm not sure I understand what you mean."

"Well—" Renji started, then abruptly stopped as though reconsidering. "You know what? It's probably nothing. Nevermind. Sorry to bother you."

And with that, he jogged off, leaving Nanao alone and confused. _Well, that was odd._

* * *

Urahara suddenly stopped, stood up, and shook his head for a full second as though he were trying to physically dislodge his confusion. Once this was done he turned back to Ichigo. "Okay, one thing at a time. How long as your spirit ribbon been like this?"

"Since we came back in time," Ichigo replied, relieved that Urahara's adaptability was intact. "Before that, it's been a solid red ever since I awakened my powers." He paused as he thought about it. "Well, I mean, it may have gone back to white whenever I lost my powers, but it's not like I could check at the time."

Urahara blinked, then shook his head. "One thing at a time. And yours is—?" he turned to Rukia.

She manifested her own solid-red spirit ribbon and held it out. "Same as always."

Urahara glanced between the two a few times, then frowned. "How do you _know_ it's the same as always?"

Rukia blinked. "What do you mean? It's solid red."

"Yes, but what color was Ichigo's ribbon in the past, before his future self arrived?"

"White..." Ichigo said slowly, eyes narrowing in suspicion.

Urahara turned back to Rukia. "And yours was...?"

Rukia gasped. "You mean... _both_ of our spirit ribbons might be a mixture of our past and future selves?"

Urahara shrugged. "It's just a theory, and testing it is nigh-impossible, but it _would_ make sense."

Ichigo, mildly stunned, sat down on the floor as he dispersed the manifestation of his spirit ribbon. "I guess Kisuke _did_ warn us that the consequences were impossible to predict."

Rukia, still standing, thought for a couple seconds before asking, "What effect does having this kind of spirit ribbon have?"

Urahara shrugged. "I have no idea; this is the first I've ever heard of such a thing."

Ichigo frowned and stared at Rukia's red ribbon. If only there were some way to determine if it was similarly "mixed" without going by the color... _Wait a minute. The ribbon is just compressed reiryoku, right?_

_That's an interesting thought,_ Zangetsu mused. _Perhaps if—_

"Speaking of the first time I've ever heard of something," Urahara turned back to Ichigo, "what is a 'Fullbringer'?"

Ichigo lost his train of thought as he shifted gears to pay attention to the conversation again. "Hmm? Oh, right. A Fullbringer is a spiritually-aware human whose mother survived a Hollow attack before they were born and can use the power of Fullbring to manipulate the souls of inanimate objects."

Urahara leaned forward, fascinated. "Are they spiritually-aware _because_ their mother survived a Hollow attack, or are they Fullbringers because they're spiritually-aware _and_ their mother survived a Hollow attack? What does it mean to 'manipulate the souls of inanimate objects?' Can they affect anything, or only objects they're in direct contact—?"

"Whoa there," Ichigo said, holding up his hands. "I have no idea what the exact set of variables that determines whether or not someone's a Fullbringer are; I just know that I was one, Chad's one, and there's a group of them out there called Xcution that we'll eventually need to deal with, but that's gonna be hard without knowing where they are right now."

Urahara's eyes widened. "You _were_ a Fullbringer?"

"Well," Ichigo rubbed the back of his neck as he tried to figure out how to explain what happened concisely, "they taught me how to use Fullbring, but only so they could steal my powers to enhance their own. I'm not actually sure if those powers reverted to me when... well." Ichigo coughed. "Let's just say that their survival rate was less than 100%. But by that point I had my Shinigami powers back, so it's not like I would've needed to use Fullbring for anything anyway, and the experience _definitely_ influenced my Shinigami powers."

"His Shihakushō started looking completely ridiculous around then," Rukia chipped in. Ichigo stuck his tongue out at her, but she just responded in kind and Urahara had to sigh at the way these ridiculously, _ludicrously_ powerful Shinigami kept acting like children.

Isshin frowned. "But... his Shihakushō looks perfectly normal."

Ichigo smirked. "Well, yeah. I didn't exactly want to stand out _too_ obviously; I have a pretty decent self-control over my reiatsu these days."

Rukia gave a little gasp of surprise. "I actually forgot you guys haven't seen what he usually looks like. Trust me when I say that it's _completely_ ridiculous."

"As opposed to partially ridiculous," Yoruichi commented sarcastically.

Rukia nodded with a smile. "Exactly."

"Oh, fuck off," Ichigo grumbled, folded his arms.

* * *

"...sheer amount of time that man can waste on inanity is maddening," Aizen was saying to Tousen as he walked back into the lab. Gin lazily waved at the two of them as he fiddled with the hood of the reiatsu-concealment cloak in his hands. Aizen raised an eyebrow at the sight. "Did you go somewhere?"

Gin shrugged. "I was bored; thought maybe I could catch a glimpse of yer ol' pal Kisuke."

"And did you?" Aizen asked idly as he began reviewing data accumulated during his absence.

"Nah," Gin said with a shrug. "Absolutely nothin' interestin' tonight; guess I'll have to amuse myself some other way."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Click [here](http://archiveofourown.org/works/12768336/chapters/29131389) for an omake of some of Gin's actions from the end of Chapter 9 to the end of Chapter 11.


End file.
